Orchids of eastern Himalayas – Page 4 – Naresh Swami | The Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya

Mycaranthes floribunda (D.Don) S.C.Chen & J.J.Wood.

Epiphyte. Stems 2 to 3 ft long and about 1.5 cm in diameter. Leaves many, fleshy, linear, sessile, 2 to 3 cm long and hardly 1 cm in width. Racemes in terminal fascicles, 2 to 3 in numbers, sometimes even up to 5, 5 to 12 cm long, woolly with lanceolate bracts at their bases. Flowers around 1 cm across, translucent, petals and sepals and the lip is of a pale yellowish green base. Petals and base of the lip with broad purple shade and deep blotches of the same colour, except on the midrib portion and edges of the petals and on the callus of the lip. Sepals with irregular pale purple markings. Dorsal sepal ovate and the lateral pair more towards a triangular shape, spreading. Petals as long as the dorsal sepal, obovate. The lip is sub-orbicular, 3 lobed, the base with a large callus, lateral lobes oblong, sub-falcate. All parts are pubescent externally.

Eria paniculata, Lindl (Mycaranthes floribunda (D.Don) — Eria paniculata Lindl (Mycaranthes floribunda (D.Don).

The Pursuit

This species can be found growing in the tropical forests of the region. However, the find of this specimen was accidental. It was in the late days of winter and I was on a trip to locate some other plants. The survey was in a valley which is a tributary of the river Teesta, at low elevation. I have to climb down from 4800 ft to the valley. As there was a village in the valley the trek path was regularly used by villagers. As it was the early spring month the undergrowth on the valley was also moderate. Hence I was searching for some terrestrial orchids in the valley. As the schools of the region are yet to open after the winter vacations, a few kids of the village also joined me. As they know me and my work, they also joined the search operation for the ground orchids. After a couple of hours of search and survey, we all were crossing the tributary through a wooden bridge. All of a sudden one of the boys spotted this plant, a pendulous stem about 2 ft long with flowers on a tree next to the bridge. I was surprised to see it in flowers too. The enthusiastic boys were ready to pull the plant down for me. It has always been my policy not to remove the plants from its natural habitats. The plant was hardly 12 to 15 ft high on the tree. My companions were expert enough to climb up the tree before me. This valley of the region is always devoid of any wind or breeze, which makes it very much comfortable to shoot even pendulous plants. With the help of the three kids I produced this wonderful photograph. After that I came across this species in flower many times for the next 2 to 3 months from several locations also.

Trichotosia dasyphylla E. C. Parish & Rchb.

Epiphyte, but seen as lithophyte also in many habitats. A spreading plant with very narrow and hairy creeping stems. Leaves small, obovate, sessile, fleshy with hairy surfaces. Flowers small, less than 1 cm across, solitary, on pubescent peduncles. Sepals and petals are of a pale green colour flushed with yellow. Lip is of the same shade but with a large dark purple blotch on its disc and a few pale brown spots at its base. The anther cap got two bright red markings. Sepals unequal, dorsal small, elliptic; the lateral pair large, triangular; both externally pubescent. Petals smaller than the sepals, oblong. Lip large, oblong, with narrowed base, side lobes very shallow, the terminal slightly deflexed.

The Pursuit

A very rare plant in its natural habitats. To my surprise I found this species on a roadside tree during one of my routine surveys. It was a tall single trunk tree to the right side of the road on the valley. Every time I pass through that location I make a short break there to see the tree and this species. I was aware of its blooming season from my referral book. The flowers are so small and not much documentary evidences about its flowers were available. Moreover, I am fond of documenting small flowers, where I can use my skills very well. By the first monsoon showers itself, I noticed buds developing on those small stems. The plants were high as 24 ft, quite a terrifying height when the tree is single trunk and in a valley. To avoid risky climbing on that tall tree everyday, I had erected a flat top ladder and was observing the plants and its flowers from very close quarters. Within ten days, most of the buds were in bloom. Then only I observed that the flowers are less than a cm across and got a lot of colour variations externally and also few markings and spots inside its small lip. On the base of the lip, the colour variation was more interesting. It was like gradually changing from pale to dark shade. I wanted those colourations to be recorded without any manipulations and tried hard with the micro flashes. Even the use of micro flashes were not of any help. The opening of the lip was just 8 mm only and the flash lights were not able to lit inside the lip. As there were a lot of buds and flowers I was having some time to rethink and plan my strategies. For the next few days, emails flew across continents and hours of phone calls to many people ended up with a new idea of using an optical fibre cable to light up the inside of the lip. Two optical fibre cables were brought all the way from the Land of Rising Sun in a chartered supersonic jet. The same was brought to the hills in a helicopter. Due to the combined ideas and efforts of several people things were made easy for me. Rest was something great, the use of a new technology till now unknown to the world. The images I produced with that new technology was amazing. It brought out till unknown details of a small flower. Also it had opened the flood gates for future flower photography too. I owe a lot to many people around the globe for this wonderful idea and this beautiful photograph.

Eria lasiopetala (Willd) Ormerod.

Epiphyte as well as lithophyte. Pseudo-bulbs much compressed with sheathed bases, vertically ribbed, 4 to 7 cm long and 2 to 3 cm in width, arranged at a distance of 3 to 4 cm apart on a stout and clothed rhizome. Leaves from the apex of the bulbs, three to five in numbers, almost oblong, tapering to the base, 5 to 9 cm long and 2 to 3 cm in width. Raceme from the base of the bulbs, erect, stout, fully covered with soft hairs. Flowers 4 to 10, about 2 cm across. Sepal hairy on the outer surface; dorsal small, lanceolate, arching; lateral large, triangular and spreading. Petals parallel over the column, narrowed at the base. Lip oblong, three lobed; lateral lobes very narrow, terminal lobe oblong, acute, slightly deflexed, the disc with two ridges.

Eria flava, Lindl (Eria lasiopetala (Willd)) — Eria flava Lindl (Eria lasiopetala (Willd))

The Pursuit

A very common plant of the tropics. Can be easily distinguished by its compressed and ribbed bulbs. I had seen this species on various habitats of the region during my earlier visits itself and documented it in the year 2011. However, back in my class room in Delhi only I noticed the fact that I miserably failed in documenting the very peculiar characteristics of this species. This species got soft, wooly hairs on its external side of its sepals. As usual one more year of wait to see those in bloom again. In the year 2012, I visited the same place and documented new flowers from the same plant with more concentration and lighting techniques to document its very peculiar characteristics. Even though I had spend extra money and time on this species, my professor back in the college was very much happy to see the new documented evidences.

Pinalia amica (Rchb.f) Kuntze.

Epiphyte. Pseudo-stem 3 or 4 arise from one point, clavate shaped, ribbed from base to apex, with several large sheaths. Leaves from the apex, 3 to 5 in number, oblong-lanceolate, tapering to the base, 5 to 8 cm in length and 2 to 3 cm in width. Each stem with 3 to 4 raceme, arising from the axils of each sheath. Flowers many, less than 2 cm across. Sepals and petals brownish yellow with 5 purple veins all through its length. The lateral lobes, disc and lamellae of the lip is purplish red and its apical lobe bright yellow.

The Pursuit

A beautiful species with wide range of habitats in the region. Its peculiar stems are an attraction and can be easily spotted. I had located the species in my earlier days of flower hunt itself. However, I missed it for a couple of seasons and got the opportunity to document it in the year 2012 only. When I visited the plant I marked for documenting, the whole branch of that host tree was full of flowers of this species. Even though the flowers are only 2 cm across, they grow in dense raceme to create a beautiful view. Being a common species, I haven’t put much attention and was casually documenting it with 5 micro flashes. After the shoot, when I was transferring the photographs only I noticed its peculiar lip disc and the well developed lamellae. Then I decided to document those flowers again and to record those details in a better way. With fallen logs and bamboo pieces from the forest floor quickly made an erect structure of about 8 ft high. Tied it to the host tree with local creeper twigs and climbed on to it to create a steady view of the flowers. Selected a few freshly bloomed flowers and with 11 micro flashes and 2 optical fibre cable lightings I produced this wonderful photograph of the species. If anybody ask me to gift the best photograph from my collection, I will surely offer this photograph.

Epipogium roseum (D. Don) Lindl.

Terrestrial. A plant with smooth and hairless unbranched stem between 8 to 45 cm in height. With many 1 cm long scattered small obtuse sheaths. Flowers distant, dropping, around 1 to 1.5 cm long. The entire plant almost white to pale cream, flowers white with many pink to purple spots. Sepals and petals linear-oblong with the latter slightly shorter. Lip elliptic, concave, entire with its apex irregularly ridged, the spur short and bulbous.

The Pursuit

A very interesting orchid plant of the region. Just after the first monsoon rains, this plant appears on its habitats from its underground tuber. The whole plant is almost white to cream coloured and devoid of any leaves, can be spotted from a distance even in thick forests. The local population who venture into the forest calls it “Bhooth pautha” (Ghost plant). Due to my regular interactions with the locals, I came to know about the presence of this plant in that region. People who frequented the forests were well aware of its locations and helped me to the exact place of its presence. The location I was shown was near to a stream with too much of undergrowths and huge tall trees. We have to descent from an altitude of 7400 ft to 5800 ft to its location. I had made arrangements with a friend of that area to visit the location regularly and inform me when the plant is in bloom. After a week I got a call from him that he saw the plants as high as 12 to 15 cm and asked me to come there. Unfortunately I was around 180 km away at another place and was waiting for another rare plant to be in bloom. Hence, I was not able to reach to the “Bhooth” in the next three days. On the fourth day I was there around 11 AM. As we were descending down the hill, I found 7 plants together just to the side of the trek inside thick undergrowths. It was a wonderful sight, a cluster of pure white plants in the midst of dense green leafed plants. Then I understood why the locals called it “Bhooth”. I had a nice documentary session there itself with too many leech bites all over my body. Again went down the hill to see the other plants. They were also in bloom, but less in numbers and in height. After that I had seen this plant on three other locations also. All of them were accidental sighting, thus proving this rare species is still there in its natural habitats. Due to some special characteristics of this species, I wanted to visit the plant in the night also. Our trek in the evening got abruptly ended with a furious female bear chasing us all the way out of the forest.

Phalaenopsis taenialis Lindl.

Epiphyte. A plant with a solitary pendulous leaf and numerous spreading, flat roots running into meters. Leaf elliptic-oblong, sessile, tapering to its base, 3 to 7 cm long and 1 to 2 cm in width. Flowers in racemes, longer than the leaves, pendulous, 5 to 9 flowered. Flowers small, 1 to 1.5 cm across. Sepals and petals are pale pink, the epichile of the lip and anther are dark punk, the base of the spur with a faint yellow shade. Sepals unequal, the dorsal lanceolate, the lateral broader than the dorsal, undulate on one side. Petals obovate to spathulate. Both sepals and petals five nerved. Lip adnate to the foot of the column, its hypochile turned into a stout sub-cylindric spur and with two narrow lobes, the epichile oblong, entire.

The Pursuit

This species got long and flat root network, often forming large clusters. In the winter months when most of the trees shed their leaves, its root network can be easily spotted. I spotted the species in the winter months because of this reason. By the early spring, leaf appears on this plant, a single pendulous leaf, from the centre of the root network. Then within a few days a pendulous raceme. I was making a visit to the location every week to ascertain its status. The authors in their monumental work mentioned about the plants producing white flowers too. However, till date there is no photographic evidence for that. Hence, I was looking for more plants from the region, to make sure I would get flowers in white. The search ended up with not much success as I was not able to find more plants from that area. With the start of early monsoon showers, the buds opened. The flowers were so beautiful, but its peculiar lip shape made the documentation time consuming and needed more technical skills than expected. There were seven flowers on the raceme I selected to document. I tried with the lower most flower on the raceme on the first day. Even after several attempts I was not getting the result I desired. The position of the pendulous flowers were also not providing a good opportunity for me to position my flashes. The day ended with much disappointment. Next day I started the journey to the location by Sunrise, determined to rectify the defects of the previous day. The location was around 7400 ft high, deep inside a forest, hence there will always be fog and slight shower. As I was about to reach there, it rained heavily and made my last stretch of trek impossible. One more day ended up on a dissatisfactory mode. The third was a bright day and I reached the place around 8 in the morning to find one more raceme in bloom on another tree. Decided to try to document those flowers and with the help of a local cattle herder, who helped me with holding six micro flashes between his short fingers, produced this wonderful photograph. However, my hunt for those white flowers of this species is still continuing.

Dendrobium transparens Wall.

Epiphyte. Stems erect, slender, long as 15 to 35 cm, with narrow thickening nodes. Leaves linear-lanceolate, 3 to 5 cm long and 1.5 cm in width, apex acute. Flowers 2 to 3 cm across, in pairs from the nodes of leafless stems. Sepals white; petals white flushed with pink; lip white except at its undulate apical lobe which is flushed with pink on its exterior, the disc with a large purple patch and its convolute sides with many streaks of purple. Sepals lanceolate, acute. Petals of the same length as that of petals, ovate and with almost blunt apices. Lip long as sepals, elliptic-obovate, clawed at the base, side lobes convolute, the terminal lobe sub-orbicular with undulate edges.

The Pursuit

When in bloom, this plant attracts the attention of all passing by. It is still fresh in my mind, the first time I saw this plant in bloom. It was inside a tea estate in the plains of the region. The estate was carpeted for miles and miles with fresh grown green leaves. The plant was on the top branch of a dried tree, with many full bloom flowers on leafless erect stems with the blue sky as background. It was one of the amazing sites of my flower hunts.

The plant is a common species of the tropics. Its erect stems are always an easy identification mark. I found this plant two years back during my routine survey and waited for its blooming time. After the first monsoon shower, buds started appearing and it bloomed in the second week. The tree in which I spotted this species was an almost dead and there was a possibility of it falling down soon. My first intention was to protect the tree from falling down, thus saving the habitat of this species. With the help of the estate manager and his workers we fixed five 15 ft tall wooden poles around the tree and tied them with iron wires. The nature enthusiast manager promised to give similar help for any trees in his territory. I was lifted up to the top of the tree on the blade of an earth mover to further safe guard the tree as well as me and my equipments. The close up view of this flower was more amazing. With its pure white petals and pink flushed sepals I think this is the most beautiful Dendrobium flower of the tropics. I was even more happy to have a wonderful position on the blade of the earth mover and produced this wonderful photograph with its pale colour variation well recorded.

Dendrobium rotundatum Benth.

Epiphyte. A pendulous plant with thick woody rhizomes and ovoid pseudo-bulbs arranged 4 to 5 cm apart. Bulbs 2 to 4 cm long partly covered with thin membranous sheaths. Leaves in pairs, oblong, with very short petioles or often sessile, 4 to 7 cm long and around 2 cm in width, apex notched. Flowers solitary, 2 to 3 cm across. Sepals and petals yellowish brown with many veins. Lip yellowish brown, edges of the side lobes with bright orange, apical lobe with a yellow triangle on its mid and the sides with dull purple colour, the base of the lip with two irregular bright orange markings. Sepals spreading, dorsal ovate to lanceolate, lateral pair slightly falcate. Petals narrower than the sepals, lanceolate, arching over the lip. Lip obovate-oblong, side lobes rounded, the disc with three lamellae, apical lobe slightly decurved.

The Pursuit

The most technically perfect orchid photograph of my entire career was of this species. This species even though not common can be easily located hanging down from huge trees in its habitats with very much ease. I found this plant three years earlier and studied it in its habitats. The authors King and Pantling described the flower as pale chestnut brown. While I was studying the flower, its unusual colouration attracted me. The flowers got bright orange stripes and markings, dull purple on its apical lobes and three distinctive bright yellow lamellae. Neither the authors in their monumental book nor any other books published later described those colourations in detail. As a challenge I took up the task of documenting the flower with all those details. The species was in plenty in that region. However, the plants pendulous growth, hanging down tall trees, always stand as a hurdle for precise photography. In the wind the pendulous stems swing to and fro causing great difficulty for my documentation work. The first hurdle was accomplished by finding a plant which was growing down a tree with its main trunk as its support. I selected comparatively a big flower (2.8 cm across!!!!). Studied it in detail to verify all the structures are intact and colouring pattern are perfect. Then the main task of arranging the lighting instruments was undertaken. As carrying several tripods to position flashes are very difficult, I often use locally available bamboos or broken branches from the forest. My intention was to use 8 micro flashes and 2 optical cable lightnings. Calculating the exact positions for each flashes and its angles inside a deep forest is not an easy task. My experience of working with those equipments and terrain always helped me in my field work. The task of taking several photographs, analysing them, rearranging the flashes at different angles to re-shoot, went on for long hours. Finally after a lot of efforts I got this perfect photograph of the species which captured the unknown characteristics of this flower.

Dendrobium porphyrochilum Lindl.

Epiphyte. Pseudo-bulbs cylindric, very small, 0.5 cm to 1.25 cm long and less than 0.5 cm in diameter, extending into a narrow stem of very short length. Leaves 2 to 5, 2 to 4 cm in length and less than 1 cm in width, linear oblong, obliquely notched at the apex. Raceme terminal, 3 to 5 cm in length and with 3 to 7 small flowers. Flowers hardly 2 cm across, sepals and petals pale green with purplish red nerves, lip purplish red with pale green margins. Sepals lanceolate with the lateral pair longer and wider than the dorsal. Petals shorter than the petals, oblong. Lip elliptic, decurved from base, edges entire, apex sub-acute.

The Pursuit

The plants of this species are very small with thin stems and narrow leaves. In the Eastern Himalayas it is seen growing around sub-alpine regions only. I was so eager to see this plant and was searching it for more than three years. It blooms along with the start of monsoon season. Due to the rains the forest floors will be full of undergrowths and leeches, this makes it very difficult to work in sub-alpine forests. All the small trees will be full of fresh leaves and finding a small epiphytic plant from those thick forested terrains will be very difficult. For a whole week I was searching for this plant on various locations. The thick forest floor prevented intrusion deep inside and I could not locate the species. I had decided to search this species where the undergrowth may not be so dense. Suddenly I spotted some area on the hill slope which was washed away due to a landslide of the previous monsoon. The landslide had taken away all the undergrowths and left the slope with a few trees only. I had an intuition that this species will be there on those trees. Slowly and carefully I climbed down the slope and searched the first tree. Unfortunately there was nothing, not even a small plant, on any of its branches. Tried the next 4 trees, the result was the same. Again I climbed down and searched more than 10 to 15 trees and found 7 plants of this species. The plants were very small and without any buds. It took several risky and dangerous treks on that slope for another five weeks to see those plants in bloom and produced this wonderful photograph.

Dendrobium ruckeri Lindl.

Epiphytic. Stems pendulous, branched and slender, as long as 20 to 30 cm. Leaves lanceolate, acute, 4 to 7 cm long and about 2 cm in width. Flowers 2 to 3 cm across, leaf opposed, solitary. Sepals and petals yellow; lip with numerous brown streaks margined with yellow; the disc crest is greenish yellow. Dorsal sepal elliptic, narrowed towards the apex; lateral sepals much broader, blunt. Petals slightly shorter than the lateral sepals, oblong, sub-spathulate, blunt. Lip much curved from its auricled base; the side lobes large, broad; the terminal lobe sub-orbicular, bifid, deflexed; the disc with a central papillose crest.

The Pursuit

This is one of the rarest of all Dendrobiums of the region. In my three years of study in the region, I found only 4 plants. Even though I found this plant two seasons earlier, I had to put a lot of hard work to see them in bloom. The location was at 4800 ft on the edge of a protected area. The motorable road which connected my place of stay and the nearest trek road to the location was at altitude of 380 ft. From that 380 ft to 4800 ft, the trek was almost vertical. The most difficult trek I had ever made in the region. The route was through the edge of a vertical steep rocky mountain almost straight up the hill. The trek though a zig-zag route will always be safer than a straight climb. This location was on the fringes of a protected area, as such the villagers were not given permission by the authorities to build a wider and safer trek route there fearing habitat loss of some rare trees of that forest. Every day the climb took more than 4 hours. The plant also showed very unusual behaviour. The buds took considerably long time to be in bloom. As I was had minimum literature on this species I was unable to judge its blooming time. Since I did not want to miss those flowers that particular season and the rarity of the species made me regularly visit the location. For 17 days I took that steep route to the location, and worked for more than 14 hours a day including the long drive from my place of stay. Finally, I produced this wonderful photograph, probably the only one of its kind from its natural habitat.