Epiphyte. Stems stout, long as 4 to 5 feet in length, pendulous. Leaves fleshy, oblong, sessile, broad and unequally bifid at the apex, sheathed at the base, often long as 12 to 15 cm. Racemes leaf opposed, shortly pedunculate, much longer than the leaves, 4 to 6 flowered, sometimes less as two. Flowers fleshy, very attractive with its outer surface creamy white and inner surface with yellow base and chocolate brown edge to edge almost parallel stripes, sometimes stripes are broken half way in the middle. The lip of this beautiful species got a yellow tinged hypochile, with its apical lobe with a broad marginal yellow coloured edging and auricles are marked with pink.
The Pursuit
Sir. George King and Robert Pantling, in their monumental publication, “The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas” published in the year 1898, described this species as “magnificent”. Widely photographed by a lot of people as it is grown in various nurseries across the region. However, those artificial circumstances never produced the “magnificence” Sir. George King and Robert Pantling found 120 years back. So, I too decided to look for this species from its natural habitat itself, which the authors had described between an altitude of 3000 to 6000 ft. The initial thoughts of its characteristics like long pendulous stem and pretty long leaves would help to find it with ease went in vain, as I was not able to spot this species. Then in the winter of 2012 on a visit to a place at an altitude between 2800 to 4100 ft, I found a few plants on a tree near to a road side home. On enquiry I was told that they brought those plants from inside the forest and planted it there a few years back. The young couple of the home was so kind enough to take me to the location of the tree from where they had collected it. The location was deep inside the adjoining forest. There was no sign of any buds, but I kept the hope it will bloom in the early Spring. Visited the place again in February and March, to see first the plant in buds and the next time in bloom and was able to produce this wonderful photograph, which matched all the descriptions Sir. George King and Robert Pantling had in their monumental work.