Species Information - Platanthera klossii

Platanthera klossii (Ridl.) Efimov, in Ormerod, Checklist of Papuasian Orchids (2017) 388.

Type: Kloss s.n. (Camp 6c, 5500 ft.); (Camp 3, 2500 ft.) (syn BM)

Synonyms:

• Habenaria klossii Ridl., Trans. Linn. Soc. London, Bot. 9 (1916) 209

Terrestrial herb, 20-23 cm high, slender, few-flowered. Basal leaves 2, elliptic, ovate, acute, glabrous, paler underneath, keeled, 3.5 by 1.5 cm, nerves 7, with transverse veins; petiole including the sheath 1.6 to 2.5 cm long. Peduncle scales several, lanceolate, acuminate or cuspidate, the lower ones 2 cm long, 3-nerved. Rachis 6 cm long, distantly 5-flowered. Floral bracts lanceolate, acuminate, 0.5 cm long. Ovary very shortly pedicellate, 1 cm long. Median sepal ovate-acuminate, obtuse, keeled, erect, almost 0.3 cm long. Lateral sepals lanceolate, deflexed, keeled, 0.3 cm long. Petals lanceolate, obtuse, shorter than the median sepal. Lip entire, lanceolate, acuminate, obtuse, dagger-shaped, carnose, longer than the median sepal; spur filiform, 1 cm long, as long as the ovary. Column broad, stigmatophores short, truncate, staminodes oblong, short, pustulose. Pollinia pear-shaped, caudicles longer, filiform; viscidium elliptic. (After Ridley, 1916).

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