Species Information - Epiblastus chimbuensis

Epiblastus chimbuensis P.Royen, Alp. Fl. New Guinea 2 (1979) 492, fig. 171

Type: NGF (Vandenberg) 39523 (holo CANB; iso L, LAE)

Synonyms:

Erect, branched, epiphytic or terrestrial, 30-60 cm high herb. Pseudobulbs cylindrical, compressed, 5-19 by 0.7-1 by 0.4-0.7 cm, ribbed. Sheaths glabrous, conduplicate, broadly ovate, 0.3-6 by 0.5-3 cm, acute, many-nerved. Leaves erect, coriaceous, glabrous, loricate, 12-33 by 0.9-2.8 cm, obtuse, mid-rib grooved above, prominent below, many-nerved. Inflorescences 9-12. Peduncle glabrous, 4.5-7 cm long. Floral bract glabrous, broadly ovate, 0.15-0.2 by 0.2-0.25 cm, acuminate, crested. Pedicels glabrous, 0.3-0.6 cm long, 6-grooved in apical part. Ovary glabrous, cylindrical-clavate, 1.7-2.5 by 0.1-0.15 cm, 6-grooved. Flowers glabrous. Median sepal ovate-elliptic, 0.85-0.95 by 0.4-0.45 cm, obtusely acuminate, 3-5-nerved, nerves slightly prominent on either side. Lateral sepals obliquely triangular, 0.7 by 0.9 cm, obtusely acuminate, 5-nerved, mid-rib crested on outside. Petals obliquely lanceolate or elliptic, 0.8-0.9 by 0.25-0.3 cm, rather obtuse or apiculate, 3-5-nerved, mid-rib slightly prominent on inside. Lip from an oblong, 0.3-0.35 by 0.25-0.3 cm large claw widening into a cordate, 0.65-0.8 by 0.4-0.55 cm large blade, claw 2-auricled at the base, between claw and limb sometimes with a transverse fold and this backwards passing into the large basal ears of the blade, the latter subacute, with one median, longitudinal crest in front of two transverse folds, behind the two transverse folds on inside with 2 small pits, apical part of median crest grooved on underside and this groove extending towards base of lip. Column short and stout, 0.35-0.45 by 0.25-0.3 cm. Stelidia obtuse. Anther broadly cucullate, trapezoid, 0.25 by 0.15 by 0.1 cm, rounded, base 2-lobed, umbonate in basal half. Pollinia pyriform, 0.03 cm long. Capsule ellipsoid-obovoid, 1.7-2.2 by 0.4-0.5 cm.
(After Van Royen, 1979).

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