Orchids of Sikkim – Naresh Swami | The Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya

Gastrodia elata Blume.

The Plant

Terrestrial. Rhizomes ellipsoid to cylindrical, 3 to 6 cm long and 2 to 3 cm in width, fleshy, some with annular rings. Stem 3 to 5.f ft high, fleshy, glabrous, with several membranous, ovate, curving sheaths attached at regular intervals. Leafless. Flowers many, terminal.

The Flower

Flower diagonally erect, 1 to 1.25 cm across. Sepals unequal, ovate at the apex and its base connate; dorsal smaller than the lateral and arching over the petals, lateral diagonally spreading. Petals oblong, narrow and smaller than the lateral petals, arising from inside the connate base of sepals. Lip 3-lobed, oblong to ovoid, smooth, base clawed and apex margin irregularly fimbriate. Floral bract longer than the diagonally erect ovary, lanceolate, arising from the under side of the ovary.

The whole plant pale brown in colour with white parallel broken streaks and its bracts of a darker shade. Sepals pale green outside and greenish brown inside with many darker branching veins. Petals as same as that of the petals, but without veins. Lip pale greenish white turning white to its apex. Floral bract shades of brown.

The Pursuit

King and Pantling’s team of plant collectors were not able to collect this species from the region of Sikkim-Himalayas during their work. Hence, there was no mention of this species in their monumental work. Later on few works of the region had mentioned this species, but I was skeptical. However, I was determined to explore several areas for this species.

The mention of its altitudinal range in many publications guided me to search this species during the monsoon season. As this plant is easily noticeable with its height and the peculiar leafless character I enquired with many villagers about its presence. But, I was not able to find any information from anyone. As I was working in the alpine region during the year 2011, I had noticed three unusual pale brown stems spurting up. They were just few inches up and I was not able to identify them properly. I made a few visits in the coming days to ascertain what it is, but its growth rate was not quick enough to ascertain anything new. As those days were full of blooming activities, I was shuttling every day between different places and those this plant slipped of my mind. As I was finalising the monthly report I instantly remembered those three unusual stems and decided to visit the place the next day. On the following day, I made a trip to the location and found that all the three stems grew about 2 to 2.8 ft in height but were broken because of some animal grazing. The climax of finding this rare and unrecorded species was shattered as the plant was broken and dead. The presence and its identification of this e gave me enough motivation to look for it from the region.

Two more weeks went without any trace of this species. By that time the monsoon weakened and daily survey was more comfortable and I was concentrating on a new area, which was never visited by any researchers.

On the third day of my survey, I found a single plant of this species about 4 ft high and in buds. As I had never seen or studied this in their natural habitats, I was not able to come to a conclusion about its possible blooming dates. I searched the whole area for one more specimen in vain. As a precaution to protect the plant from possible wildlife movement my helper and I fenced the plant with locally available fallen branches. As the blooming dates were not confirmed I visited the plant every day until it bloomed and I produced this beautiful photograph. Later on, I worked in the region for three more years but never encountered this species even from the two locations it was found in 2011.

Reference:

There is no reference of this species in the The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).

Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine.

The Plant

Terrestrial. A single stemmed plant of the height between 35 to 50 cm. Roots many, stout and 4 to 5 cm long with a very small sheath at the base of the stem. Stem cylindrical, puberulous. Leaves 4 to 6, unequal, broadly elliptic to sub-orbicular, sessile, many nerved, sheathed, 2 to 5 cm long and 1.5 to 3 cm in width at its wider portion. Flower many in a peduncle.

The Flower

Flowers large 1.5 to 2 cm across. Sepals unequal, broadly lanceolate, 3 to 5 veined with the mid one prominent; dorsal sepal smaller than the lateral, arching, acuminate, keeled; lateral sepals larger than the dorsal, spreading, acute, its tip pointing diagonally downwards. Petals slightly longer than the dorsal sepal but shorter than the lateral sepals; lanceolate, acuminate, irregularly veined, diagonally erect and slightly arching forward. Lip as long as the petals; its epichilec ordate, bend downwards with irregular margins and two globose calli at its base; hypochile globularly saccate. Flowers with unusually broad stigma. Floral bract long and narrow, diminishing in length upwards, 2 to 5 cm long, lanceolate, veined, arising from the lower side of the stalked and arching ovary.

Sepals and petals green. The outer portion of the hypocile of the lip is green with pale purple tinge throughout out, the two calli on the base of the epichile are purplish green. The inside of the saccate hypocile is dark purple. Column greenish yellow with orange red margins. Floral bract green.

Epipactis helleborine subsp. helleborine.

The Pursuit

A species never documented from the region after its mention in the monumental work of Sir. George King and Robert Pantling. As usual, many authors wrote about this species merely copying the text from the monumental work. Hence, the description of this species remained almost unchanged for more than a century.

During the inception of my work I had decided to put more time and energy in finding all those species, which were not documented in the last century. This species was at the top of that list. The only reference was that it was reported growing at 11,000 ft and flowers in the month of July. The month of July I used to concentrate on alpine hills and I was looking for this species there. Even after surveying huge areas in the month of June and July there was no trace of this species. Those days are unpredictable in the hills with heavy monsoon, flash floods and roadblocks. To make movement more difficult, a glacier burst washed away a bridge of the main road to the alpine region and all vehicular traffic came to a standstill. As the road is of high strategic value, the army’s engineering wing started rebuilding at a quick pace. As they were transporting bridge building equipment in large trucks, every day I found a little place for myself on the steel girders on those military trucks!!! The location of my search area, a towering mountain, was between 11,000 to 13,000 ft and was more than 17 kilometers away from that damaged bridge. As there were no vehicles plying on the other side of the damaged bridge I regularly walked than stretch. Every day I had to climb up the mountain, do my survey and return to the damaged bridge before the last vehicle with personnel returns to their base. Hence, there was no room for any miscalculations; every step had to be timed perfectly. To the surprise of all we got a few sunny days in the hills that week. I was on a routine trip and by afternoon I was descending the hills. I took a short cut through thickets of Rhododendrons. Those Rhododendrons grow so close by; walking through them was very hard. However, to save some time and distance I took that hard path. While negotiating the Rhododendron thickets I found a small plant of this species with few leaves. On close observation I understood that the plant was a mature one and its upper flowering portion had broken off. As I haven’t seen this species earlier or never got a chance to see a photograph of it I was not able to identify it. Expecting more of the species I searched under those Rhododendrons thickets. Time was ticking and I knew I will be missing the vehicle for my return journey. But, the eagerness in me made me continue my search. Those thickets never allowed easy movement. Finally, after around 40 minutes of search I found three plants of this species. Flowers in two of them had withered and one with almost fresh flowers. Finally, after more than a century the species stands in front of an explorer. It is a once in a life time moment and I have no words to express my joy. In the thrill of that moment I had forgotten about the vehicle or how I would reach my base camp. My only thoughts were to document those flowers to the best of my ability. I was there till sunset studying and documenting the plant. I walked back under the shadow of the setting sun and through the darkness of the night for 36 kilometers and reached my base camp at 2 minutes passed midnight.

Reference:

King, G. &Pantling, R. (1898). The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas. Ann. Roy. Bot. Garden. (Calcutta). Epipactis latifolia All., Page no 271/272.

The Plant

The Flower

The Pursuit

Reference:

King, G. &Pantling, R. (1898). The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas. Ann. Roy. Bot. Garden. (Calcutta). Epipactis latifolia All., Page no 271/272.

Goodyera foliosa (Lindl.) Benth. ex C.B.Clarke.

The Plant

Terrestrial. A small of the height between 7 to 10 cm. Stem cylindrical, fleshy, decumbent at the base. Leaves green, 4 to 7, lanceolate, petioled with a narrow sheath, three nerved bordered with white, with the mid one wider than the other two, margins of the leaf undulate as well as minutely serulate to its apex. Flower many, arranged closely in a short peduncle.

The Flower

Flower 1 cm across. Sepals unequal, ovate, acute, connate at the base; dorsal smaller than the lateral, diagonally erect and connivent with the petals; lateral diagonally spreading with its apex curved behind and margins curved. Petals rhombic, smaller than the petals. Lip oblong with broad base, long, decurved, channeled at its middle. Column and rostellum long. Floral bracts long, diminishing in length to its apex, lanceolate, erect.

Sepals and petals pale rose flushed with white. Petals more to the whitish base. Lip pale rose turning whitish rose to its apex. Column bright yellow. Floral bracts pale green flushed with pale brown at its base.

Goodyera foliosa, (Lindl.) Benth. ex C.B.Clarke. — Goodyera foliosa (Lindl.) Benth. ex C.B.Clarke.

The Pursuit

I found this species when they were at an early stage of growth, from deep inside a forested area in the semi alpine zone during a routine survey. There were more than 200 plants of this species in a small area under thick forest cover. The entire forest was covered with huge tall trees, but the forest floor was relatively open without any undergrowth. Hence, I was able to count the plants, but gave up when the count reached 200. From close observation it was clear it would take another 30 to 45 days for them to be in flower. But, I made it a point to visit the location once in a week. During my second visit in two weeks, my assistant found one plant fully grown and with buds around 15 m from the main cluster. The buds were about to open and we decided to make a visit in the next five days. The scheduled 5^th day was washed out due to rains and on the next day I was forced to trek to the location all alone. While I was approaching those small plants, I was surprised to notice several ripped tree leaves spread all over the forest floor. My curiosity to locate a species in bloom made me walk ahead. As I was sitting next to the plant and noting down its characteristics I felt some movement over my shoulders. I got really scared and while looking back I found one white-chested bear (Ursus thibetanus) sitting on top of a tree behind me. That was the first time I had spotted a white-chested bear from that region. The bear seemed so scared it was clinging to the tree. As a rule, I immediately packed up my camera bag and moved out of that area without disturbing the bear.

After that, I made six more visits to that location to document the species. During each visit I hoped I would crisscross the bear again but it never reappeared again.

Reference:

King, G. &Pantling, R. (1898). The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas. Ann. Roy. Bot. Garden. (Calcutta). Goodyera foliosa Benth. ex Hook., Page no 281 – 282.

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).

Trichotosia pulvinata (Lindl.) Kraenzl.

The Plant

Epiphyte. With 10 to 18 cm long, decurved, pendulous stems, covered with reddish brown hairs throughout. Leaves many, alternatively arranged, leathery, lanceolate, acuminate, 4 to 5 cm long and 1.5 cm in width, margins and dorsal part covered with hairs as that of the stem.

The Flower

Flowers leaf opposed, in short stout racemes, 4 to 6 each, with large triangular hairy green bracts. Sepals sub-equal, ovate to lanceolate, hairy on the outer surface, spreading. Petals narrower than the petals, spreading, not hairy. Lip as long as the petals and sepals, lanceolate with its apex curved up to form a boat like structure, margins not lobed, disc with an elongate callus near its apex.

Sepals, petals and lip pure white. Half the length of the lip margins from the base is flushed with crimson red, its disc has a bright elongated yellow marking near to its apex. The anther cap is spotted with a bright and attractive crimson red shade. Sepals are externally covered with reddish brown hairs.

Trichotosia pulvinata, (Lindl.) Kraenzl. — Trichotosia pulvinata (Lindl.) Kraenzl.

The Pursuit

A plant of the region which was illegally collected from the wild for trade, thus destroying its entire population. I had a feeling that some of the plant collectors of the region may be knowing its earlier habitats. Even though these plant collectors are very secretive in disclosing the locations, some will do so for some financial returns. Thus I got a vague idea of a location where this species was in plenty some 20 years back.

As this species got long pendulous stems, I was sure I will be able to locate it, if it was somewhere in the wild. I visited the said location in the early monsoon for survey. The location was around 2200 ft high and surrounded with tall trees and heavy undergrowths. The whole day I searched the area and I trekked up to almost 4000 ft. It is a practice I follow to take another route while returning, so that I can survey more places. If the route is uphill, while going up I take the long route and while returning I prefer to take short cuts. As I was negotiating a short cut route downhill, to my surprise I found a huge plant with almost 18 stems, some even more than 15 cm long on a small tree. It was a surprise that such a huge plant survived there without the notice of any collectors. On close observation I understood that flower buds just started emerging and it will take another 20 to 30 days for it to bloom. That made me so worried, as I feared that it may be picked up from there by somebody before I document it.

I had a good friend in that area, a very influential person of the locality. I phoned him and met him at his home that evening and shared with him about the situation. We visited the location the next day. He was also aware of the presence of collectors and their illegal activities in that area. He suggested that we should cover the whole plant with some branches so that it should not be noticed easily. I was afraid that it will damage the plant, but was left with no other options. He and his friends brought a few broken tree branches and placed it in a slanting position on the tree trunk in such a way it covered the plant. They did it very carefully without damaging any of the slender pendulous stems of the plant. My friend’s contacts there volunteered themselves to take care of the plant till it blooms. I too visited the location thrice in those twenty five days to analyze the plant and its growth. My friend informed me over phone about the first bloom and I made this wonderful photograph of the species. After that I visited 4 more times to document other flowers from the same plant.

Later on, after all the flowers withered, we translocated the plant to another location which was deep inside the forest to protect it. This year too I visited its new location to see them in flowers.

Reference:

King, G. & Pantling, R. (1898). The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas. Ann. Roy. Bot. Garden.(Calcutta). Eria rufinula Reichb., Page no 128 – 129.

Pinalia pumila (Lindl.) Kuntze.

The Plant

Epiphyte. Whole plant less than 15 cm in height. Erect or pendulous. Rhizome thick, covered with many fibrous sheaths. Pseudo-stems many, arising together from the rhizomes. Stems sub-cylindric or in many cases compressed, 7 to 9 cm long and around 1 to 2 cm thick. Leaves 4 to 6 in numbers arising from the apex of the stem, 5 to 7 cm long and 1 to 2 cm in width, lanceolate, tapering to both sides, with 2 to 3 cm long translucent and veined sheaths.

The Flower

Flowers in dense capitulum, arising in short peduncles from the axils of the leaves. Capitulum 2 to 2.5 cm across with 12 to 26 minute flowers. Sepals oblong to obtuse, erect. Petals much narrower, spreading. Lip oblong, three lobed, disc ridged. Lateral lobes, short, erect. The mid lobe deeply cut into two lobules.

Sepals and petals translucent, pale pink. Lip of a creamy white shade. Column brownish red.

Pinalia pumila, (Lindl.) Kuntze — Pinalia pumila (Lindl.) Kuntze.

The Pursuit

This is a plant never been studied from its natural habitats of Sikkim-Himalayas. With very little information available – including a question mark (?) on its blooming time by the authors, this was one of the most interesting pursuit made by me in the region. The only reference made was that the species is found in the tropical valleys and the blooming season as “August?”.

Between the months of May and October I always concentrated on orchids from the higher altitudes. But, I had always found time to come down to tropical valleys in search of many species and succeeded in finding many in bloom. King and Pantling in many cases mentioned some indications like Teesta valley, Frontier regions etc., so that the search can be done in those areas. In this case, it was only mentioned “Tropical valleys”. I tried several locations between the months of April and September in 2011, but was unable to locate this species. In 2012, I was taking a long trek along with my assistant and my assistant in a heavy forested region in the tropical zone to document another plant we had spotted few months back. The location was around 6 to 7 hours trek from the nearest village and it was impossible to return on the same day. Hence, we were carrying tents, food etc for the day. Midway, we were cooking our lunch on the banks of the stream we were following. My assistant boy was a local of the region and had the art of making utensils like spoons, glasses etc. from bamboos and plates from leaves for serving food. He was able to find few bamboos from near the stream, but was not able to collect wide leaves to make plates. As he was looking after the cooking, I went inside the thick forest to bring few wide leaves. While inside the forest, I found two orchids in bloom which I had already documented a year ago. Those finds made me do some survey in that location, with my mind saying “I will find something more”. Usually it has been advised by the Forest officials not to venture deep inside the forest all alone. As I was already inside the thick forest, I decided to do a quick survey and was constantly in touch with my helper by blowing whistles (a way of communication inside thick forests).

The forest was very thick, so movement as well as locating plants from tree tops were not easy. Within five minutes I came across two fallen trees. Fallen trees are always a home to many wild orchids. To my surprise I found a two stemmed single plant of this species with almost dried flowers. I was so excited I ran back to the stream to bring my camera and my assistant to help me. We searched the whole area for more plants with fresh flowers, but never able to locate anymore. As the plants were on a fallen tree, I started documenting the flowers without any help from my assistant. However, he used that time to climb few trees near by for a closer survey and was lucky to find another cluster of this species with fresh flowers. I too climbed up that tree and produced this beautiful photograph, probably the first of its kind from the region. Thus updating the information of its blooming time with more accuracy.

We both were returning so happy just to see a herd of 21 elephants on the stream enjoying their bath after smashing off our lunch and my beautiful tent and back pack!!!.

Reference:

King, G. & Pantling, R. (1898). The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas. Ann. Roy. Bot. Garden.(Calcutta). Eria pumila, Lindl., Page no 118 – 119.

Pleione maculata (Lindl.) Lindl. & Paxton.

The Plant

Epiphyte, pseudo-bulbs varying in shape at different stages of growth, generally cylindric to barrel shaped, its surface mottled with purplish brown, enveloped by loose brown fibers. Leaf in pairs, 6 to 15 cm long and 3 to 4 cm in width, narrowly elliptic-oblong, acute, narrowed to the petiole, base sheathed with bracts having nodular inflations. Leaf-less during flowering.

The Flower

Flowers solitary, erect, large, 5 to 6 cm across, rising from the base of the pseudo-bulb by a very short peduncle covered in a large spathaceous flower bract with broad emarginate apex, longer than the ovary. Sepals spreading, sub-equal, oblong to lanceolate, sub-acute, 7 nerved. Petals spreading, narrower than the sepals, of the same length or slightly shorter than latter, oblong, five to seven nerved. Lip broadly elliptic, three lobed, the basal part convolate round the column; the lateral lobes entire and narrower; the terminal broader, with sub-entire edges and broad apex. The disc with 5 to 7 fimbriate ridges. Column long and slightly curved, its apex winged. Pollinia elliptic.

Sepals and petals pure white, occasionally with streaks of dark brownish pink. The lip is white based with its interior marked with yellow and brownish pink streaks. The fimbriate ridges are yellow.

Pleione maculata, (Lindl), Lindl — Pleione maculata (Lindl), Lindl.

The Pursuit

A rare and threatened species of the region. Very rarely spotted in the natural habitats in the past decade. However, it is surprising to see many orchid scientists and researchers published its photographs in many articles. It amused me to know most of them had never been too long in the region. I had closely studied many photographs to find that the colouration and structure never matched the descriptions of King and Pantling. Later, I found that this species is growing in many nurseries of the region – one of the reasons of its disappearance from the natural habitats, and all those scientists had the privilege of documenting the plant and its flower from those nurseries. The species is a native to tropical forests and its translocation to higher altitude made it adopt another characteristics which was evident in all those photographs.

Hence, I decided to find it from its natural habitats itself. As it is a low altitude species and native to tropical valleys, the search was concentrated on the banks of river Teesta. However, I was not able to spot them from any of the places known to me. In the month of October, I was traveling in a service vehicle to another region in search of some species. A group of ladies were the co-passengers, returning to their homes after purchase in connection with Durga puja (a big festival of the region). As a practice, I always show my co-passengers drawings of orchids made by Pantling from my IPad. It had helped me a lot as many people had given me enough tips to find many species. I had shown the drawing of this species also. One of the ladies identified it and even narrated stories of collecting its flowers for the Durga puja (it flowers in the month of October/November, the season of Durga puja). She had explained to me about its location which is near to her maternal home. I noted down all the points for identifying the location from her talks. Next week, I started my journey to her village, where I luckily got some contacts. However, even after searching for three days we were not able to locate the tree or the plant. On the fourth day, as we were about to go to another site for search, we met the same lady in the village market. She is back in her home in connection with the Durga puja. My contacts were very well connected with her and made enquiries about the location of the tree. After getting maximum information, our small party of three went to the place she directed. All the three were climbing different trees to locate the plant. Finally, after a search of around four hours we found a small patch of plants, numbering 14, in full bloom. It was such an exciting moment to all of us. I was so lucky when the whole village was celebrating the Durga puja with local brew and drinks, my loyal contacts were happy to be with me in locating the plant. If we had waited for all the celebrations to be over, we would have found the flowers in a withered state only. With the help of those very kind friends I was able to produce this wonderful photograph with all the characteristics described by King and Pantling.

Later on, last year, I found one more habitat of this rare plant.

Pleione hookeriana (Lindl.) Rollisson.

The Plant

Epiphyte, with small oval shaped pseudo bulbs covered with a few lax sheaths. Leaf solitary, 3 to 5 cm long and 1 to 1.5 cm cm in width, proceeding from the base of the adult pseudo-bulb, narrowly elliptic, acute, tapering towards the petiole. Leafy during flowering. Peduncle longer than the leaves, enclosed in tubular imbricate sheaths.

The Flower

Flowers solitary, 2 to 3 cm across, floral bract about as long as the stalked ovary, arising from the apex of the pseudo-bulb and protruding through the petiole of the leaf. Sepals spreading, sub-equal in length, elliptic to oblong, the dorsal slightly narrowed than the lateral, five nerved. Petals spreading, narrower and longer than the petals, obtuse, 5 to 7 nerved. Lip sub-reniform, cordate at base, broader in its posterior half, minutely erose in its anterior portion, apex retuse, disc with 7 ciliate ridges from the base to apex. Column long and curved, broadly winged. Pollinia obliquely elliptic.

Sepals and petals are of various shades of pale pink to rose, slightly darkening towards the margins. Lip almost white with a few reddish brown markings on its disc. The ciliate ridges are bright yellow.

Pleione hookeriana, Lindl — Pleione hookeriana Lindl.

The Pursuit

A rather common species of the high altitude hills. I had spotted this species from several hilly areas of the region during my work. In the pre-monsoon days this species creates an interesting view, with hundreds of flowers fully covering many tree trunks. Before my research on orchids of Sikkim-Himalayas, I had noticed this species in full bloom during one of my trips to North Sikkim. The observation of the species in flower from a very high altitude caught our attention and we did some photo shoots. On our way back me and my fellow class mates had a long conversation about the species. Later on, I started my research on orchids and became an almost permanent resident of the region. During its flowering season, I was working from Lachen in North Sikkim and decided to study and document the species from those same trees.

The trees are on the right side of a sharp curve on an ascending road (most of the roads of North Sikkim are uphill only!!!). The sharp curve coupled with the ascending nature of the road makes all vehicles slow down there. Thus the flowers on those trees had bought the attention of all passing by. Even the taxi operators got a scheduled stop there for the tourists to have photo shoots.

I visited the place every time when I went up the road. Finally, the flowers started opening up. My visits turned regular and saw more and more flowers in bloom. My intention was to get maximum blooming flowers in one frame. Finally, I decided the shoot for the next day and also wanted to document the top most growing plant in bloom. The reason was that, this is the highest growing epiphytic orchid of the region at 11,800 ft MSL. That means the top most flower on those trees will be the record bearer for the highest growing epiphytic orchid of the region!!!. Our journey uphill from Lachen was systematically planned with ladder, hooks, ropes, cardboards etc. While in the spot only we realized the fact that the ladder width is around half the diameter of the tree, hence it is difficult for it to hold on to the tree. My driver came up with some ideas to fix the ladder rigidly with some iron wires he found nearby. I and my assistant were right up the tree taking much caution not to destroy any plants on the trunk and branches. I selected the topmost flower, luckily it was a fresh flower too. Shooting was so difficult due to heavy winds. The flower was shivering in the wind, which makes sharp photos impossible. My assistant was kind enough to hold many hardboards on almost all sides to prevent wind and made me produce this wonderful photograph of the species, the highest blooming epiphytic orchid of the region!!!

Pleione praecox (Sm.) D.Don.

The Plant

Mostly epiphytic, seen also growing on rocks and even as terrestrial. Pseudo-bulbs vary in shape from cylindric to barrel, surface mottled with brown and imperfectly sheathed with fibers. Leaves in pairs, 6 to 14 cm long and 2 to 4 cm in width, membranous, elliptic to oblong, many-nerved, narrowed at the base to the petiole. Leaf less during flowering. Peduncle from the base of the pseudo bulb. Flowers solitary, mostly pendulous, large, 4 to 6 cm across. Floral bract obovoid, obtuse, as long as the stalked ovary. Sepals spreading, sub-equal and lanceolate. Petals spreading, much narrower than the sepals. Lip ovate to orbicular, side lobes absent, the basal convolate round the column, the anterior concave, the mouth wide open with irregular lobulate edges, the apex slightly bifid. The disc with three laciniate lamellae. Column very long, with a short sac at the base. Pollinia clavate.

The Flower

Sepals, petals and lip are of various shades of rose to pink, sometimes darker or lighter. The disc of the lip got many dull yellow to brown spots, the lamellae is of a bright yellow shade. However, several colour forms of this species are spotted on various locations like pure white form, with only the lip with white etc.

Pleione praecox, (Sm) D. Don — Pleione praecox (Sm) D. Don.

The Pursuit

This species is locally common in the region. It blooms in plenty in its natural habitats between September and November. As it blooms after shedding its leaves, the species turns the whole trunk on which it is growing into a shade of pink. The flowers show enough colour variations from dark pink to pale pink and sometimes pure white. My intention was to find the flower with the exact descriptions made by Sir George King and Robert Pantling in their monumental work a century ago. This made the task somewhat difficult. I studied and observed several hundred specimens from various locations and host trees for several days. Finally, zeroed on a particular tree with hundreds of flowers. The tree was of 70 to 80 ft in height with with around 8 ft diameter trunk and huge branches. The flowers which I wanted to document were at a height of around 18 ft from the ground on the main trunk. In the absence of a ladder, I always uses a rope circled around the trunk to climb trees. With this tree that was impossible, as it will destroy many flowers on its trunk. The only option was to climb up another tree near to it and move across its branches to the top of this tree and winch down using a long rope. The cold winds and leafy moss covered branches will not make such movements and manoeuvring easy at staggering heights in deep forests. Somehow, I managed it with the help of my assistant and hung down from the branch with the help of a rope at 20 feet high from the ground and made this wonderful photograph of its flowers – with all the characteristics matching the text of King and Pantling.