Month: November 2014

Peristylus goodyeroides (D.Don) Lindl.

The Plant

Terrestrial. A robust plant from the region, attains height between 1.5 and 2.25 ft. Stem stout, clothed in the lower portion with two blunt, clasping sheaths. Leaves 4 to 6 arranged close together at the apex of the stem, ovate with pointed apex, stalkless and with clasping bases, short sheathed, 4 to 6 cm long and 1.5 to 2 cm in width, veined with dull yellow broad margins on its upper surface. Flowers small, in spike, many, closely arranged, peduncle narrow than the stem and also with two lanceolate acuminate bracts. Tubers oblong, hairy.

The Flower

Flowers small, around 1 cm across. Sepals sub-equal, dorsal broad, concave, lanceolate and arching; lateral pair twice longer as that of  the dorsal, wider at the base, spreading, oblong, obtuse, with undulate margins and folded inwardly. Petals broadly concave, blunt, larger than the dorsal sepal, connivent with the dorsal sepal to form a hood. Lip slightly shorter or of the same length of the lateral sepals, three lobed, middle lobe with blunt apex, side lobes narrow with pointed apex. Floral bracts narrow, lanceolate, erect and arising from the lower side of the ovary. Flowers sweet scented.

Sepals pale brownish pink with minute white margins. Petals greenish white with darker apex. Lip of the same shade as that of the petals, with darker shades on the apex of the three lobes. The disc of the lip got an elongated greenish brown marking on its base.

Peristylus goodyeroides, (D.Don) Lindl.
Peristylus goodyeroides (D.Don) Lindl.

The Pursuit

A plant with sweet scented flowers. I spotted this plant with its scent only. I was camping in a protected area of the forest in the early monsoon months. As that was my first visit to that particular region, every day I crisscrossed the forest in search of new species. Early monsoon showers help a lot of plants to spurt up, as a researcher the spurting up of various plants is a great botanical phenomenon to observe. Every day before my scheduled flower hunt with my assistant, I take short trips to the forested area to watch and observe those new growths and study different plants. On one of those sunny mornings, as usual I was out with my illustrated dictionary to look for some unusual plant structures and sensed some sweet fragrance from the area. The fragrance was so soothing and nice; I was tempted to find out its source. I assumed it might be from some night flowering plants. I started looking around for it and found four plants right in front of me in full bloom. It was an unforgettable experience. In general, plants got bright coloured flowers and sweet scent to attract pollinators, today the same science made the flower attract a researcher. I was overjoyed and went back to the camp to bring my documentation instruments and produced this beautiful photograph.

Reference:

Habenaria goodyeroides Don., Page no 326 – 327 of The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).

Habenaria furcifera Lindl.

The Plant

Terrestrial. Whole plant 1.5 to 2 ft in height. Stem narrow. Leaves 4 to 7 arranged on the lower portion of the stem, with the middle ones larger, elliptic, acute, with sheathing bases and undulate margins, veined, 6 to 14 cm long and 1.5 to 3 cm in width. Peduncle with 10 to 14 erect, lanceolate and clasping leafy bracts diminishing in size to the apex. Flowers many, laxly arranged in a spike of 8 to 12 cm long. Tubers ovoid.

The Flower

Flowers large and slightly drooping. Dorsal sepal concave, ovate to oblong, arched; lateral sepals lanceolate, acute, spreading. Petals are of the same size of the dorsal petal, oblong,  connivent with the later to form a hood. Lip long and tri-segmented; lateral pair filiform, longer than the middle, diverging and with narrowing tips. Middle segment broad and blunt. Spur laterally compressed, longer than the arched ovary, stout at the base and curved up at its apex. Bracts arising from the under side of the ovary and longer than it, erect and lanceolate.

Flower green throughout, with sepals of darker shade than the petals. Lip and spur are of pale green.

Habenaria furcifera, Lindl.
Habenaria furcifera Lindl.

The Pursuit

This species has a special place in my heart. This is one of the few species I studied in my early days of research from Sikkim-Himalayas. Moreover, it is a very elusive species to find, relatively rare to find from the region.

For my work, I moved from the scorching heat of mainland Delhi to the monsoon hit Himalayas. Getting accustomed to the region, its climate and the fieldwork were of great difficulty. I had to get used to heavy rains, landslides, roadblocks, leeches, homesickness etc. I overcame these difficulties and went for pursuits everyday. On that particular day, I was concentrating on a hill near to my base camp apparently to avoid long journeys through the landslide prone roads. We went up the hill in our vehicle and were trekking down through the forested area in the valley. The heavy rains on the previous days made the whole trek route slippery and made it very difficult to walk down hill. My assistant and I had many slips and falls on that slope. We decided to leave the trek route and walk through the forested area, which was fully covered with fresh undergrowth. As we walked over the forest our choice would avert further slips and falls, but would damage or destroy many plants. Those were my initial days in the field and I was not so conscious about those matters. As we were negotiating through 2 to 3 ft high undergrowth, I found a very small plant of this species with few buds. The plant was just 14.3 cm high, with 11 buds and 3 small leaves. As I got the whole of King and Pantling’s monumental book in my Ipad, it enabled me to identify the species immediately. As it was in bud, my assistant and I decided to have a detailed survey on that slope for more specimens of this plant. The whole we searched the valley without anymore finds. It started raining by 2:30 PM and we returned to our camp. Luckily, next day was a day with no rains. We went to the other side of the hills. That side was steeper with river Teesta flowing around 1400 ft below us and the hunt was very risky. In that type of terrain for safety reasons I would secure myself with a rope tied on to my waist with its other end tied around a strong tree. The rope I use was of 18 ft length and its length will further get reduced by another 7 ft when it is secured on both ends. Hence, the search area will be reduced to just 10 feet only, but it is an unavoidable safety decree. To cover that whole mountain slope, we tied and untied the rope many times on that day to find another specimen of this species. Luckily there were two plants in bloom, with fresh flowers. As I was sure that coming down to the spot again will be a matter of concern I wanted to have one of the best photographs. With strong winds blowing, hanging down on the hill slope secured by a rope, was a very unpleasant situation to produce technically perfect photographs. But somehow I succeeded. I still remember the chill that went down my spine on looking down at the river Teesta flowing below.

Reference:

Habenaria furcifera Lindl., Page no 313 of The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).

Peristylus constrictus (Lindl.) Lindl.

The Plant

Terrestrial. Whole plant between 2 to 2.5 ft high, with the lower one third being the stem and the rest the flowering spike. Stem stout with 2 or 3 wide blunt sheaths on its lower portion and 5 to 8 leaves in a whorl around its apex. Leaves ovate-elliptic, upper and lower ones relatively smaller than the others, 4 to 7 cm long and 2 to 2.5 cm in width, acute, long sheathed and clasping, with noticeable veins and broad pale yellow margins. Spike with 2 or 3 lanceolate and acuminate bracts. Tuber oblong, hairy, 2 to 5 cm long and 1 cm in cross section.

The Flower

Flowers many and densely arranged in a spike, each 1.5 to 2 cm across. Sepals sub-equal, lateral three times longer than the dorsal; dorsal broad, lanceolate and arching; lateral pair spreading, oblong, obtuse, with undulate margins and folded inwardly. Petals larger than the dorsal sepal, obliquely ovate, lanceolate, with a winged outward extension on its base, internal edges slightly overlapping. Lip longer than the lateral sepals, three lobed; oblong with blunt apex, side lobes slightly longer than the middle one but narrow, lobes three veined. Spur very small, globular. Bracts erect, lanceolate, acuminate, longer than the ovary.

Sepals pale brownish pink with very minute white margins. Petals pure white. Bracts greenish brown.

Peristylus constrictus, (Lindl.) Lindl.
Peristylus constrictus (Lindl.) Lindl.

The Pursuit

One of the beautiful terrestrial orchids of Sikkim-Himalayas. It was once a common species, presently on the verge of extinction due to habitat loss and over collection from the region. Even though several researchers had documented this species, it took me more than three years to find it from its natural habitat.

I was aware about its blooming cycle from various century old publications. The plant appears along with the early monsoon showers and blooms within a month. I was concentrating for this species on both the banks of river Teesta. During the pursuit of this species I was able to cross over the river Teesta several times at different locations, even during the monsoons. Several of its earlier habitats were destroyed due to construction of dams over the river Teesta.

The day I found this species of the find of this species, I got a good company in the form of a Forest Guard who was earlier posted in that region. He had made many treks inside those forests to trace out poachers; hence he was very familiar about river crossing and the general geography of the region. He guided me very well inside the deep forest and we did a long day of survey finding many species including six young plants of this species. The plants were still so young, my initial calculation was that it would take another 15 to 20 days for them to bloom. The Forest Guard promised that he would try to accompany me in my next trip also.  After two weeks when I contacted him, he was attending an official training program, which would not be over in another 10 days; hence I was left alone with the pursuit. As I was aware about the fact, that when the dams over the river Teesta were fully functional I will never be able to cross to the other side and will hopefully never see this plant again, made me undertake the trip all by myself the very next day. The first part of the journey – crossing the river was done without much difficulty. But, inside the forest I lost the track of those six plants. I attempted different tracks and location, but was unable to locate those plants. Totally disappointed I returned to my camp. On the next day also, I tried without any success. In between I found some other species, but for what I went there remained elusive.

After a week, my good friend called me and said he is back home from training and ready to make a trip. I reached his home the next day as early as I could and immediately left for the search. After around 1 hr and 45 minutes of walk, much before the location of those six plants we sighted earlier, we found two new specimens of the species in full bloom. It was a wonderful sight to see this almost pure white flower in full bloom with the green foliage in background. Interestingly, in my two previous visits I took a break of more than 15 minutes at that same location but had failed to spot them. We decided to skip the other habitat and document the present ones and shot this beautiful photograph of the species.

Now, with the dam fully functional and river water up by more than 30 to 40 ft, the entire region is under water, bringing death to thousands of plant species and the main river of the Sikkim-Himalayas.

Reference:

Habenaria constricta Wall. ex Hook., Page no 325 – 326 of The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).