Orchids of Darjeeling – Page 6 – Naresh Swami | The Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya

Biermannia bimaculata King and Pantling.

Epiphyte. Relatively a small plant. Stem very short, leaves 3 to 4in numbers and 3 to 5 cm long and less a cm wide, linear to oblong, narrowed to the base, the apex bifid. Raceme stout, short and with triangular bracts. Flowers small, creamy white, confined to the upper half of ovary. Sepals sub-equal, ovate to lanceolate, apiculate, the lateral pair attached to the foot of the column. Petals shorter than the sepals, ovate. Lip at right angle from the short foot and lying parallel to the column, with two blotches of brown on is calli.

The Pursuit

Relatively a small plant, hence it is very difficult to spot it in the wild. However, found growing along with some Aerides species in a hot tropical valley. Missed it in bloom in the year 2011 as it bloomed much earlier than what is mentioned in the referral King and Pantling’s work. The authors mentioned the blooming month as July, so visited the region in the second half of July only to see the pods and the flowers withered away. It is so sad to miss a plant in bloom after spotting it. Missing a species in bloom means waiting for another full year. In 2012, much importance was given to this little species and visited and re-visited the region several times and finally along with the summer rains I found the species in bloom. Although the day started with morning sun shine, half way on my journey the sky turned dark and it started raining. Luckily I had carried my rain coat and had a nice comfortable walk wearing that in heavy rains. By the time I reached the spot, the heavy rains turned to light showers, and I was able to get this photograph of this species.

Esmeralda cathcartii (Lindl) Rchb.

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.

Goodyera repens (L.) R.Brown.

Terrestrial. A small beautiful plant of the size 6 to 12 cm in height. Stem leafy below and bracteate above, passing into pubescent peduncle. Leaves ovate-elliptic to elliptic, the peduncle sheathing in the lower half. Raceme sub-secund, its rachis and the bracts and ovaries sparsely pubescent or sometimes sub-glabrous. Sepals sub-equal, ovate, sub-acute. Petals about as long as the sepals, cunneate-oblong, acute at the apex. Lip about as long as the sepals, saccate at the base, the apical lobe short.

The Pursuit

This species was documented from the Western Himalayas by several people who visited the “Valley of Flowers”. However, even though described by many from Eastern Himalayas, none was able to produce a photograph (It never grows in any nurseries like other Jewel orchids may be the reason!!!). I decided to survey an area between 12000 and 13000 ft. As it grows near to streams and water bodies, I concentrated on areas with wet and moist surroundings. Even though it is a small plant, its leaves are very attractive and draws attention. At those altitude the main trees are the Rhododendrons with very thick and strong branches which make survey under them very difficult. However, with very much difficulty I crawled under those thickets in search of this species for several days. Finally all of a sudden I was standing in front of the species, altogether around 15 plants scattered on a wet moist land. They were in buds only, however it took another two weeks to see them blooming. In the two weeks I visited the area for 6 days. Finally I got it on a rainy day. I still remember the efforts I put that evening to dry up my camera stuff.

Habenaria dentata var. dentata.

Terrestrial. Whole plant about 35 to 80 cm in height. Lower part of stem sheathed, middle leafy and upper part bracteate. Leaves 4 to 6 cm long, oblong to elliptic, 5 nerved, sometimes 7 also, the base of the leaf narrowed into a long tubular sheath. Spike 4 to 8 cm long, laxly flowered. Sepals sub-equal, broadly ovate, acute, spreading, the lateral pair sub-erect. Petals narrowly oblong, sub-acute, curved inwards, shorter than the sepals. Lip as long as the sepals, variable in breadth, with large cuneate or rounded, fimbriate or crenate side lobes and a small oblong entire apical lobe. Spur infundibuliform at the base, slender laterally compressed, geniculte, sub-clavate below the knee, longer than the shortly stalked beaked ovary. Stigmas separated by the area in the centre by the orifice of the spur.

The Pursuit

The local people of the region had seen this plant in bloom and had admired its beauty for many years, to them this is the most attractive flower of their forest. I located a few places, where this species appears every season and was following it to document in bloom. Information came from local villagers that they found two plants with buds about to bloom, so I reached the area. The plants were on a height of about 800 ft on a steep hill. For seven continuous days I climbed up the hill only to see them in buds. As I have to document some other plants I decided to leave them behind and proceeded to the other location, thinking I will only see them in bloom the next season. To my surprise, on the drive home, all of a sudden, from the window of the moving vehicle, I spotted the species in full bloom on the road side. I got down on that deserted forest area to see six plants with four of them in full bloom. I have never experienced anything like that in my entire flower hunt, something I waited for long is right in front of me. I will never forget those moments as well as the 17 km trek I made after that to reach the nearest village!!!!

Habenaria malintana (Blanco) Merr.

Terrestrial. Whole plant about 30 to 65 cm in height. Lower part of stem sheathed, middle leafy and upper part bracteate. Leaves 4 to 6 cm long, oblong to elliptic, 5 nerved, the base of the leaf narrowed into a long tubular sheath. Spike 4 to 7 cm long, laxly flowered. Sepals sub-equal, broadly ovate, acute, spreading, the lateral pair sub-erect. Petals narrowly oblong, sub-acute, curved inwards, shorter than the sepals. Lip as long as the sepals, lanceolate, always curved upwards. Spur totally absent. Stigmas united.

The Pursuit

As this species is a look alike of Habenaria dentata var. dentata, it was very difficult to distinguish them without flowers. Repeatedly visited the area, every other day, trekking around 12 km. In the end, spurless buds came confirming it as Habenaria malintana, (Blanco) Merr. Then came the obstacle in the form of a land slide which brought the vehicular movement in that region to a standstill. Took the help of villagers in finding an alternative route across the river, using bamboos, ropes etc. Frequenting to there every other day became a huge hazard and decided to camp there for the bloom. This time the buds behaved nicely, they bloomed much before than expected and got the photographs of the species in bloom for the first time from the region.

Bulbophyllum penicillium C.S.P.Parish & Rchb.f.

Epiphytic. Pseudo-bulbs arranged close together, in some instance slightly apart also, broadly ovoid, between 1.5 to 3 cm long. Rhizome stout. Leaf 7 to 12 cm long, oblong to lanceolate, narrowed at the base into a channelled sheathing bract. The raceme longer than the peduncle, decurved with a stouter rachis. Flowers in distance of 1 to 3 cm. Sepals sub-equal, narrowly lanceolate. Petals smaller than the sepals, orbicular, fleshy. Lip longer than the sepals, very mobile in nature, lanceolate with a truncate auricled base, broadly fimbriate-fringed except at the base.

The Pursuit

After Sir George King and Robert Pantling’s monumental work, “The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas”, published in the year 1898, several publications by various authors on orchids came up. A lot of research works got the descriptions and study details of this species also. However, no photographs were made available by any of the other authors, pointing to the conclusion that this plant was not located by anyone from the wild. Sir George King and Robert Pantling mentioned August and September as its blooming time. The same was noted by all other authors who wrote about this species. After a lot of efforts I located the plant, just a few, from the region. I visited the plant several times during the months of June, July and August thinking it will bloom in those months. However, no flowers were found during those months. Then I realisied the fact that the blooming time mentioned by Sir George King and Robert Pantling may be wrong and all others followed the mistake. So decided to follow the plant round the year, visited the region once in every ten days. After a long wait, the racemes started appearing in the month of November and finally it bloomed after the winter in the first week of March. Later I got another confirmation of the blooming of the species from Meghalaya, there also it bloomed in the month of March, thus concluding to the fact that a mistake had cropped up with the monumental work. The most interesting fact is that a lot of eminent researchers followed the “mistake” by mentioning the blooming time as August and September in their publications and findings. This single incidence proves the need to study each and every species in their natural habitat before bringing out publications.

Arachnis labrosa var. labrosa.

Epiphytic. Stems woody, long about 2 to 3 feet, pendulous. Leaves coriaceous, keeled, unequally bilobed, 10 to 15 cm long. Raceme long as the leaves. The peduncle and rachis slender. Flowers arranged in distance of 2 to 3 cm, floral bract broad. Sepals unequal, oblong to oblanceolate, blunt. Petals smaller than the sepals, oblong and acute. Lip shorter than the petals, shortly clawed, the blunt apex with a large papilla. Spur recurved, blunt and cylindric between the papilla and the base. Sepal and petals are yellow with dark brown markings. The lip yellow has dark pink lines and auricles with bright pink blotches.

The Pursuit

After Sir George King and Robert Pantling described this species in their monumental work, “The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas”, published in the year 1898, several publications came up with the descriptions of this species. However, no photographs were made available by any of the other authors, pointing to the conclusion that this plant was not located by anyone from the wild. Hence, I put extra efforts to locate this plant. Sir George King and Robert Pantling mentioned their find from “Bhotan near the Sikkim frontier in the Rumpti Valley at a low elevations”, prompted me to survey low altitude areas of the region in the early monsoon days. After several weeks only, a couple of plants with much similarity to the descriptions of Sir George King and Robert Pantling were found. However, it took another three months to confirm (by theoretical research) the same as Arachnis labrosa var. labrosa, by that time it bloomed thus confirming my efforts. Thus able to document the species for the first time in flower from the region.