Prev Species: Octarrhena exigua

Next Species: Octarrhena filiformis


Octarrhena falcifolia

Octarrhena falcifolia

Octarrhena falcifolia (Schltr.) Schuit., Blumea 48 (2003) 512

Type: Schlechter 14010 (holo B, lost; iso BR, K, P)

Synonyms:

  • Chitonanthera falcifolia Schltr. in K.Schum. & Lauterb., Nachtr. Fl. Deutsch. Schutzgeb. Südsee (1905) 194
    - Type: Schlechter 14010 (holo B, lost; iso BR, K, P)
  • Chitonanthera aphanopetala Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 58 (1923) 146
    - Type: Ledermann 11568 (holo B, lost)

Epiphytic, spreading or pendulous, small, several-stemmed, to 30 cm high. Rots elongated, filiform, flexuose, glabrous. Stems flexuose, leafy, tightly covered by the ancipitous leaf-sheaths. Leaves erect or erect-patent, falcate, lanceolate or oblong-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, equitant, articulated, 0.6-1 cm long, near the middle 0.2-0.3 cm wide, glabrous. Inflorescences arising from the leaf axils, very small, laxly 2- to 4-flowered, half as long as the leaves or less. Floral bracts minute, ovate, acuminate, about as long as the ovary. Flowers erect-patent. Sepals patent, oblong, obtuse, almost 0.2 cm long, glabrous. Lateral sepals somewhat oblique. Petals erect-patent, minute, linear-ligulate, obtuse, densely papillose, much smaller than the sepals. Lip deflexed, oblong-ligulate, somewhat narrowed to the base, obtuse, glabrous, smaller than the sepals, densely papillose. Column at the base conspicuously swollen, densely papillose; stigma transverse, narrow; clinandrium large, dorsally bifid, margins minutely ciliate. Anther minutely rounded, in front subobtuse. Ovary almost cylindrical, 0.2 cm long, glabrous.
(After Schlechter, 1905 and Schlechter, 1911-1914)


Flowers salmon-orange with darker lip.

Epiphyte in montane forest; 1100 to 2130 m.

Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).

Papua New Guinea. See map

distribution in New Guinea

Cool growing epiphyte.

January, May, June, July, August, September, November.

  • Schlechter, R., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 1 (1913) 900, as Chitonanthera falcifolia Schltr.
  • Schlechter, R., Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 21 (1928) t. 314, fig. 1208, as Chitonanthera falcifolia Schltr.
  • Family Orchidaceae
  • Subfamily Epidendroideae
  • Tribe Podochileae
  • Subtribe Thelasiinae
  • Genus Octarrhena
  • Species Octarrhena falcifolia

Sponsored Ads

Octarrhena falcifolia

Octarrhena falcifolia (Schltr.) Schuit., as Chitonanthera falcifolia Schltr., drawing R. Schlechter in Repert. Spec. Nov. Regni Veg. Beih. 21 (1928) t. 314, fig. 1208

Octarrhena falcifolia

Octarrhena falcifolia (Schltr.) Schuit., as Chitonanthera falcifolia Schltr., herbarium sheet, Schlechter 14010 (isotype specimen K), photo copyright the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew

Octarrhena falcifolia

Octarrhena falcifolia (Schltr.) Schuit., as Chitonanthera falcifolia Schltr., detail of herbarium sheet, Schlechter 14010 (isotype specimen K), photo copyright the Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew