Species Information - Thelasis pygmaea

Thelasis pygmaea (Griff.) Blume, Fl. Javae, n.s., 1 (1858) 19, fig. 1-3

Type: Calcutta cult. (Lawrence) s.n. (Nepal) (holo CAL)

Synonyms:

• Euproboscis pygmaea Griff., Calcutta J. Nat. Hist. 5 (1845) 372, fig. 26(b):1-5
  - Type: Calcutta cult. (Lawrence) s.n. (Nepal) (holo CAL)
• Thelasis pygmaea (Griff.) Blume, Fl. Javae, n.s., 1 (1858) 19, fig. 1-3
• Thelasis triandra Blume, Fl. Javae, n.s., 1 (1858) 18, fig. 1-3 (as nom. nov.)
• Thelasis triptera Rchb.f., Bonplandia 3 (1855) 219
  - Type: Cuming 2062 (holo W)
• Thelasis elongata Blume, Mus. Bot. Lugd. Bat. 2 (1856) 187
  - Type: Blume s.n.; (Salak); (Megamedung); in Leiden: Blume s.n., no loc. (syn L); Kuhl & van Hasselt s.n. (syn L)
• Thelasis zollingeri Rchb.f., Bonplandia 5 (1857) 37
  - Type: Zollinger 271
• Thelasis hongkongensis Rolfe, Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew (1896) 199
  - Type: Hance 1289; Ford 18 (syn K)
• Thelasis amboinensis (J.J.Sm.) J.J.Sm., Bull. Jard. Bot. Buitenzorg, sér. 2, 13 (1914) 35
• Thelasis elongata Blume var. amboinensis J.J.Sm., Orchid. Ambon (1905) 86
  - Type: Treub (Ambon, Hila) (holo BO)
• Thelasis celebica Schltr., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. 10 (1911) 187
  - Type: Schlechter 20587 (holo B, lost)

Plant small, forming mats, to 11 cm high. Pseudobulbs turbinate, with 2 unequal leaves. Leaves ovate-oblong, fleshy, emarginate, 1-nerved channelled; smaller ones almost round, . Inflorescence from the base of the pseudobulb, 7.5-13 cm long terete, with a few membranous scales; rachis 2.5-4.5 cm long, many-flowered; floral bracts lanceolate, acute, 0.1-0.2 cm long, at right-angles to the rachis, persistent. Flowers opening a few at a time, in bud depressed dorso-ventrally, 2-edged, small, inconspicuous, green, scentless; bracs small, scale-shaped; perianth fleshy, connivent. Median sepal oblong, 0.25 by 0.1 cm. Lateral sepals obliquely oblong, conduplicate, keeled, 0.3 by 0.15 cm. Petals narrow lanceolate or oblong, 0.2-0.25 by 0.08 cm. Lip as long as the sepals, entire and simple, similar to the petals, half-convolute, continuous with the base of the column. Column vertical, very short, oblique; rostellum (anticously) elongated, long rostrate and bifid; anther parallel with the column, dorsal, fleshy, prolonged into a long beak; pollinia 8, round, minute, incumbent in fours, with a very long caudicula; viscidium linear, about half as long as the caudicula. Ovary simple.
(After Griffith, 1845, and Lewis & Cribb, 1991)

---