Species Information - Epiblastus montihageni

Epiblastus montihageni P.Royen, Alp. Fl. New Guinea 2 (1979) 496, fig. 172

Type: ANU (Wheeler) 6369 (holo CANB; iso L)

Synonyms:

Erect, branched, terrestrial or epiphytic, 30-50 cm high herb. Pseudobulbs glabrous, oblong, compressed, 3-17.5 by 0.5-1.2 cm. Sheaths glabrous, ovate, 0.9-8.5 by 0.5-3 cm, acute, many-nerved, mid-rib crested. Leaves erect, coriaceous, glabrous, linear, 1550 by 1.2-3.4 cm, obtuse, many-nerved, mid-rib grooved above, prominent below, margins membranous, only at very tip with a few papillae. Inflorescences c. 13, in 3 bundles. Peduncles glabrous, 5-9 cm long, in fruit up to 10 cm long, narrowly ribbed. Floral bract glabrous, broadly ovate, 0.1-0.15 by 0.07-0.1 cm, acuminate. Pedicel 0.1-0.2 cm long, in fruit up to 0.5 cm long, 6-ribbed. Ovary glabrous, narrowly oblong-claviform, 1.5-1.8 cm long, 6-grooved. Flowers glabrous. Median sepal ovate, 0.6-1 by 0.45-0.6 cm, obtuse, 5- or 6-nerved. Lateral sepals obliquely ovate, 0.8-1.1 by 0.8-1.1 cm, short obtusely acuminate, 6-nerved. Petals slightly obliquely oblong-elliptic to broadly elliptic, 0.65-0.9 by 0.25-0.35 cm, subobtuse, 3-nerved, lateral nerves with 4-6 short veins radiating towards margin. Lip with a cuneate-obovate, 0.25-0.4 cm long claw, blade ovate-triangular, more or less 3-lobed, 0.5-0.7 by 0.4-0.6 cm, subacute, between blade and claw with a 2-lobed or entire, transverse crest, lip 5-nerved at base of claw, up to 20-nerved along margin of blade, mid-rib in front of crest shortly crested above. Column short and stout, 0.3 cm long. Stelidia indistinct, rounded or retuse. Anther cucullate, 0.2 by 0.15 by 0.1 cm, deeply 2-lobed at tip, rounded at base. Pollinia triangular-pyriform, 0.08 cm long. Column-foot 0.4-0.5 cm long, flattened. Capsule falcate-ellipsoid, 3 cm long, at tip with remnant of flower.
(After Van Royen, 1979).

---