Sikkim Orchids – Page 2 – Naresh Swami | The Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya

Arundina graminifolia (D.Don) Hochr.

The Plant

Terrestrial. Plant with varying height, from 2.25 to 9 ft. Stem erect, reed like woody structure, around 1.5 to 2.5 cm in width. Leaves many, alternatively arranged, membranous, acuminate, sessile, clasping, sheathed at the base, 4 to 12 cm long and 1.25 to 2 cm in width. Flowers in branched racemose, many flowered.

The Flower

Flowers large, 3 to 5 cm across. Sepals unequal, dorsal erect, oblong; lateral parallel to each other, underneath the lip, lanceolate, one nerved. Petals broader than the sepals, rhomboid with pointed apex, spreading, one nerved. Lip variable, portion between its base and mouth convolute round the column, mouth large and spreading, deeply bifid, with numerous parallel veins. The disc with three lamellae.

Flower colour varies from plant to plant. Sepals, petals and the convolate portion of the lip are with shades of pink. The spreading mouth is of a darker shade, with many veins.

Arundina graminifolia, (D.Don) Hochr. — Arundina graminifolia (D.Don) Hochr.

The Pursuit

My first journey uphill the Kalimpong-Sikkim road from Siliguri was in a hired vehicle – over loaded with too much luggage inside and poring heavily outside. Through the foggy windowpane, I spotted this plant in bloom with many of them in flower. To be frank, in those days I was not aware of the abundance of this species and its relatively longer blooming season. Hence, I wanted to document those flowers then and there. It was raining heavily and removing the camera and accessories from the fully loaded luggage inside the vehicle was not so easy. Out of curiosity I made our vehicle stop there and observed the flowers thoroughly. There were many flowers of brilliant pink colour. The driver was kind enough to pull down the luggage and help me in getting all those instruments needed for the shoot. However, the need of the hour, the umbrella was not traceable. It was in one of the suitcases but we were not able to locate it.

As it was the first species I had located I was utterly disappointed to leave the documentation undone. As we were about to leave, I spotted two people walking towards the other side with umbrellas. As they approached our car, I made a very polite request to borrow their umbrella in Hindi, which was promptly translated to Nepali by my driver. They obliged happily. My driver made both of them sit in our vehicle and we took their umbrellas and produced a few photographs – of course not so technically perfect ones!!!

Later on, in my entire four years in the hills, I had spotted this species several hundred times from many locations. Each of them shows its own colour pattern; hence I document this species almost every time I got an opportunity.

Reference:

Arundina bambusifolia Lindl., Page no 113 of The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).

Esmeralda clarkei Rchb.f.

The Plant

Epiphyte. Stem 4 to 7 feet long, stout, pendulous, roots thick and long. Leaves arranged alternatively, oblong, sessile, with sheathed and clasping base, bifid at the apex, 5 to 8 cm long and 1.5 to 2 cm in width. Flowers in leaf opposed stout 12 to 16 cm long racemes.

The Flower

Flowers very attractive, large, around 3 to 4 cm across, 4 to 5 in numbers, attached in distance and arising from a node like structure in the raceme enclosed in a clasping bract. Sepals unequal; dorsal oblong and blunt, erect; lateral oblong, falcate, spreading. Petals slightly shorter and narrower than the lateral sepals, oblong, minutely arching down, spreading. Margins of sepals and petals towards their apex are curved up ending in a deflexed beak tip.

Sepals and petals are yellowish brown up to two-third of its length from the base, with broad chestnut brown half broken horizontal bands, the upper one-third totally chestnut brown. Lip yellowish brown to orange base throughout, the side lobes of the hypochile with chestnut brown vertical bands, its disc white with two brilliant brown elongated patches; epichile with white diverging bands. The apex of the anther with pinkish brown margins.

Esmeralda clarkei, Rchb.f. — Esmeralda clarkei Rchb.f.

The Pursuit

Undoubtedly, this one of the most beautiful orchid flower of the region. As the saying goes, “beauty is sometimes a curse” is most appropriate for this species as it was collected in plenty for trade due to its beauty, thus making it almost on the verge of extinction from the wild. I had seen this species in bloom in many houses and nurseries of the region, but there was something missing in those flowers. Although King and pantling used to the term “magnificent” to describe the flowers of this genus, I felt they are gloomy.

I was determined to find this species from its natural habitat. More importantly, I am the only person who had documented and studied the other two species of this genus from the region; hence it was more important for me to find this species also. (Note: In the days of King and Pantling, there were three species under Arachnanthe genus from the region).

I know a couple of places of its nearest ally of this species, Esmeralda cathcartii (Lindl) Rchb. My initial thoughts of finding this species in those locations were not right. King and Pantling’s mention about this species growing at higher altitudes than its ally and blooms in a different season made me shift my search to some other locations. I searched vast areas inside a semi tropical forest for weeks. During that search I found many other species but this one remained elusive. The search month coincided with many religious festivals of the region and getting somebody to accompany me was really impossible. All my accomplices were either on official or “unofficial” leave. As the region was inside a protected area and with enough wildlife, venturing inside all alone was not allowed. Even though the region of Sikkim-Himalayas is very small in area, there are many places where no humans have ever ventured. It is interesting to note that many of theses places are inside protected areas, which are to be monitored regularly by its staff in the form of patrols. Taking into consideration the blooming time of the species and my curiosity to find it, the in-charge official of the area somehow arranged a casual official to accompany me for a few days. He was such a lazy man; we never got along very nicely. However, as the saying goes, “something is better than nothing”, I took advantage of his presence and went deep inside the unexplored areas. The search went on for several days without any success. But I never gave up, one day as we were returning to the base camp in a patrol trek, I found two long pendulous stems of this species swinging in the light evening breeze right above our head from a huge tree. The stems were more than 6 feet long and curved down. It was a joyous moment of my entire days there. I never thought I would find the species with such ease. As the days were very short during those months we decided to return to the camp and come back next day to study the plant. Next day we were there before afternoon, and found there were 6 buds coming up and it would take quite some time to be in flower. I visited the plant several times in the next one month to see them in bloom and produced this wonderful photograph.

The area is a habitat of many bears and leopards. There was a recent report of a leopard attack on a patrolling party. However, with the grace of the Almighty in the almost 48 days I worked there, I never encountered any big wild animals.

Reference:

Arachnanthe clarkei Rolfe., Page no 209 – 210 of The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).

Anthogonium gracile Wall. ex Lindl. – the alba form.

The Plant

Almost the space as that of the species one, but with relatively larger pseudo-bilbs and longer leaves and peduncle. Flowers 4 to 5, laxly arranged in distance.

The Flower

Sepals, petals and lip pure white. Anther bright yellow, ovary pale green, floral bract brown.

Anthogonium gracile, Wall. ex Lindl - the white form — Anthogonium gracile Wall. ex Lindl – the white form.

The Pursuit

In the monumental publication, King and Pantling noted, “A white-flowered variety is not uncommon”. However, this white form was not much reported or documented from the region. That made this white form one of the most sought orchid from the region for me.

As the rose coloured species are available in plenty, almost everywhere, it is a familiar species to the local population. However, due to its peculiar shape most of the people cannot relate it as an orchid! Wherever I went for other species during those months, I was asking everyone about the white coloured one, without any success.

In the year 2012, I was working in the alpine areas of Sikkim-Himalayas between May and October. As the road connectivity always got blocked due to monsoon-triggered landslides I seldom came to the plains during those days. In those alpine areas there are not much of private transport available and I totally depended on Army vehicles to shuttle between places. In the month of September, I was forced to make a trip to the State capital in connection with finalizing some publications. I took an early morning army vehicle, which was going to their base camp in the town downhill. Those huge trucks are built for those terrains and are the safest mode of transport on those hilly terrains. As we crossed the half way, the walkie talkie in the cabin relayed message of a landslide a few kilometers ahead and asked the vehicle to return to its starting point. As there were some officials who have to board a train to their home that very same evening, they requested the pilot of the vehicle to drop them up to the landslide point. After getting permission from the higher authorities he took us to the landslide area. The slide was about 80 ft long and the road was covered with almost 4 to 5 ft high mud and many rocks. As I have to attend the meeting next day, I decided to take the risk and cross the landslide on foot and get another lift from the other side. The road was totally covered with mud and in some places my legs sunk in the slug up to my knees. I was muddy all over from my shoes to my cap. Somehow, with the help of many others I walked the entire landslide and reached the other side. Went to the stream ahead washed the clothes and shoes without much success. Waited with hope for a vehicle to go downhill. As the message of the slide was relayed over walkie talkie, the check post downhill prevented any vehicle movement and those people who crossed the slide were stranded there. As I was with very little luggage I decided to walk down hill to the nearest town, which was about 16 km away.

As I was walking down hill, I started spotting many of those rose coloured flowers of this species on both the sides of the road. I was concentrating on both sides for any colour variations with a hope that I will find the white one. As I was taking a sharp turn, made by cut opening a projection of the rocky hill, I spotted few white flowers on the left side of the road at a height of about 20 to 25 ft. The sides were full of undergrowth and spotting them was very difficult. I tried to climb that side, but it was almost vertical and climbing up was impossible. My efforts to find a long bamboo to clear the undergrowths from the road and identify those white flowers also met with no success. As I was wondering what to do next to reach the flowers, I heard the sound of army trucks coming up the hill. They were going with porters and helpers to clear the land slide and open the road for traffic. Luckily, I knew the personnel on the first army vehicle and they stopped by to inquire about the landslide. Then I requested the pilot of that vehicle to move his truck to the right side of the road, so that I can climb on the top of its cabin and reach out to those flowers. He obliged with a firm reply that he could spare just a couple of minutes. I climbed up the cabin and cleared some undergrowths and was happy to identify the white form of this species. As the trucks have to go to clear the slide and open the road for traffic, I climbed down immediately to let them go. Then I decided to stay back in the downhill town for the day and come to those flowers next day with proper arrangements for the documentation.

Next day, I hired a vehicle and arranged a long ladder and proceeded to the location and with the help of the driver, climbed up the ladder and cleared some undergrowths and documented the plants. They were altogether 6 plants with 16 flowers and 7 buds. Most of the flowers were fresh and I selected this particular one and produced this wonderful photograph.

Reference:

Anthogonium gracile Lindl., Page no 96 – 97 of The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).

Anthogonium gracile Wall. ex Lindl.

The Plant

Terrestrial, but often found growing as lithophyte also. Pseudo bulb small, ovoid, partially buried in the ground (if terrestrial). Stem narrow, 6 to 18 cm long, sheathed at the base. Leaves 2 to 6, many nerved, long, with parallel edges and pointed apex, sessile, base sheathing, 6 to 15 cm long and 1 to 1.5 cm in width. Flowers in peduncle arising from the lower side of the pseudo bulb, longer than the leaves, 1 or rarely more, raceme very rarely branched. Ovary ribbed and long stalked, with a narrow lanceolate, clasping floral bract arising from its lower side.

The Flower

Flowers many, 5 to 24, laxly arranged. Non-resupinate. Flowers 1.5 to 2 cm across with long-stalked ovary. Sepals unequal, dorsal oblong; lateral ovate, twice wider than the dorsal; connate at their bases to form a narrow cylindric tube. Petals oblong, smaller than the lateral sepals, the base attached inside the tube. Sepals and petals single veined. The base of the lip attached to the column, tubular, apex wide open.

Sepals and petals rose to pink coloured. The mouth of the lip white, disc and side lobes with many pinkish dark spots, anther a brilliant yellow, ovary pinkish brown, floral bract brown.

Anthogonium gracile, Wall. ex Lindl. — Anthogonium gracile Wall. ex Lindl.

The Pursuit

As the monsoon settles down in the month of August, the open land, slopes, rocks of the sub-tropical forests are full of this species. They cover the entire area and within few weeks start blooming. Its blooming phenomenon continues for two more months thus enabling a wide range of audience to enjoy its beauty. I had spotted these plants in plenty by the end of monsoon from many locations and waited for them to bloom.

Even though widely documented, the colour variations and markings inside its lip were not properly documented earlier. Hence, I decided to document this species in detail for further references. As the flower is non-resupinate, with its lip pointing upwards, the dark markings on its disc is apparently invisible with all published photographs. Hence, I decided to take a low angle shot to make those markings visible. For the same I was looking for a few plants growing at a height of about 6 to 7 ft from the ground with its stem erect and stretching outward. Even though the species was in plenty in that location, one with all features of my imagination was difficult to find. After a couple of hours of search I found a few plants growing on a rock next to a small stream. The plants were on the outer side of the rock and projecting outwards. Their height was also very much suitable for my low angle shots. Stepping into the knee-deep water of that small stream I produced this low angle shot of the species with full details of its disc markings and colour variations.

Reference:

Anthogonium gracile Lindl., Page no 96 – 97 of The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).

Rhynchostylis retusa Blume.

The Plant

Epiphyte. A robust plant with stout erect stems, spreading decurved leaves and thick long roots. Stem clothed in the sheaths of dried leaves of previous season, 15 to 35 cm in height and 2 to 3 cm in width. Leaves 4 to 12, with equitant bases, keeled, bilobed, 20 to 35 cm in length and around 2 cm in width. Flowers in curved pendulous racemes arising from the base of the leaves, densely flowered.

The Flower

Peduncle short with a few small sheaths, raceme 12 to 30 cm long, ribbed. Flowers 1.5 to 2 cm across, attached in 1 to 1.5 cm long pedicels, sepals unequal, dorsal oblong, erect; lateral broadly ovate, much larger than the dorsal, blunt, lower margin slightly undulate, spreading. Petals narrower than the dorsal sepals, oblanceolate, blunt and spreading. Lip right angled, with its base narrow and channelled, margins bend upwards; the apex broadly retuse, side margins curved up and the disc with two short and narrow lamella like projections. Spur short, almost rectangular in shape and compressed. Floral bracts very small, lanceolate, attached on the upper side of the slightly curved and ribbed pedicels.

Sepals and petals white to pale pink with many irregular horizontal dark pink markings, more to their apexes. Lip of two shades, its base white to pale pink, disc dark pink, spur and pedicel pale pink, the latter with a darker shade to its apex. Floral bract brown.

Rhynchostylis retusa, Blume. — Rhynchostylis retusa Blume.

The Pursuit

This species is nicknamed as “Foxtail Orchid” and is the State flower of the neighboring state of Arunachal Pradesh. It is a very important region in the Eastern Himalayan biodiversity hotspot blessed with more orchids than that of Sikkim-Himalayas.

This plant attracts the attention of one and all even without in flowers because of its appearance and leaf pattern. There are many varieties of this species, with much colour variations through out the tropical region of the Eastern Himalayas. King and Pantling in their monumental publication had illustrated and described a specimen of this species from the region of Sikkim-Himalayas, this helped me to narrow down and search this species from the tropical valleys of Sikkim-Himalayas only. As the plant is very robust in nature and can be found in many locations, the only matter left was to be there at the right time of its flowering. By the mid of April, I observed racemes arising in many plants. Made several visits to those spots and finally by the mid of May they all started blooming. When the flowers are in plenty, it is very difficult to choose a perfect one. In circumstances like that I always prefer those flowers, which are easy to be reached. Hence, I selected a plant from a relatively smaller tree and produced this wonderful photograph.

As this species produces a number of colour varieties I documented several specimens later on from various regions to study its colour patterns. They all have one thing in common, elegance!!!

Reference:

Rhynchostylis retusa Blume., Page no 213 – 214 of The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling (1898).

Acrochaene punctata Lindl.

The Plant

Terrestrial. Pseudo-bulbs crowded, ovoid, arranged very close to each other, attached to a stout rhizome with many thick long roots; bulbs brownish and coriaceous during flowering. Leafs oblong, obtuse, 7 to 12 cm long and 1.5 to 2 cm in width, emarginate, narrowed to both ends, the base into a long petiole of about 4 to 7 cm long. Flowers in slightly decurved peduncles, arising from the base of withered bulbs, pendulous, arranged laxly. Peduncle with two erect, large, spathulate bracts at its base.

The Flower

Flowers 12 to 20; 2 to 2.25 m across, peduncle with two large spathulate, erect bracts at its base. Sepals unequal, dorsal elliptic, acute, erect; lateral pair broadly triangular, sub-acute, the lower margin undulate and slightly bent upward, seven veined. Petals smaller than the dorsal sepal, narrowly triangular, fimbriate, spreading, three to five veined. Lip as long as the petals, attached with a large curved claw at its base, side lobes erect, apical lobe tongue-shaped, with a deep partition from the base to almost middle. Floral bracts half to one-third size of the curved pedicel, attached to its upper side, lanceolate with broad base.

Flower, peduncle and its basal bracts are of a greenish base with purplish brown streaks and dots through out. Sepals pale green with numerous purplish brown dots to its apex. Petals of the same shade as that of the sepals but with broader purplish dots on the margins, fimbria bright green with purple markings. Lip with a darker shade than that of sepals and petals at the apex and turning paler to the base, its apical lobe with several large irregular brownish spots. The outer surface of the flower with pale green shade with numerous unequal brown dots and streaks. Floral bracts pale brown with darker irregular markings.

Acrochaene punctata, Lindl. — Acrochaene punctata Lindl.

The Pursuit

This species is very rarely found from the region. I had studied this species in detail from the referral book of King and Pantling. Its pseudo bulbs are arranged very closely and has a stout rhizome with thick roots, with bulbs coriaceous in texture – were the features I had chosen to locate this plant. As most of the trees will be devoid of any monsoon climbers in the winter months, it was very easy to search for small plants like this species. One afternoon, my assistant and me were in a thick-forested area of a wildlife sanctuary at an altitude of around 4800 ft. We were there looking for few plants blooming in the winter months including this species.

My assistant, who belongs to an indigenous community of the region, has the knack of imitating the sound of birds. He always imitates the sound of some or other birds to bring them out from hiding. Instead of looking for orchids he then observes those birds through my binoculars and describes their colours, shapes etc to me. As it interrupts my purpose of visit, I always discouraged him from this sort of distractions. The same afternoon, he was making the sound of a particular bird, he had observed several times there. His sound made a male bird of that species come out from its hiding and it started reciprocating the calls made by him. His curiosity made him observe the bird through my binoculars. His descriptions of bright red feathers, yellow beak provoked me to observe the bird through the binocular. I was panning the binocular to locate the bird and my view got stuck on a bunch of orchid plants around 40 to 50 ft high on a tree next to the bird. The view from that position was good to observe the bird but not the orchids. So I moved ahead to the other side of the tree for a good look, which disturbed the bird, and it flew away making my assistant bit unhappy. He also came to help me to the other side of the tree and to our surprise it was this species, that also with several peduncle in buds. My assistant was a very good climber and whenever he is with me I always felt comfortable. We both were up the tree and studied the plant and decided to make another visit after 6 days.

On the sixth day, we were again there. My assistant making those bird cries again, but the bird never turned up on that day. At the top of the tree, we found only a few of them in bloom and decided to come back after 2 days. On the third visit my assistant was unable to be with me and I went all-alone to the location. Trekking those deep forests and climbing those heights without any assistance, also with cameras and accessories was very difficult, but the curiosity of having a new specimen documented makes the trek as well as the climb go on. On that day except one peduncle rest everything was in bloom and I produced this beautiful photograph of the species.

Moral: Respect the qualities and skills of everybody around.

Reference:

Acrochaene punctata Lindl., Page no 153 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).

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.

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.

Paphiopedilum venustum (Wall. ex Sims) Pfitzer.

Terrestrial. A small plant with 3 to 5 elliptic-oblong leaves. Leaves 6 to 12 cm in length and 3 to 5 cm at its centre, acute, minutely bifid at its apex, fleshy, sheathing to its base, shades of green reticulated with pale green above and dull brown below. Peduncle longer than the leaves, terete, puberulosus, with solitary erect flowers, very rarely found with two flowers also (of around 80 plants I found from the region, only three specimens were having two flowers). Flowers 3 to 5 cm across, floral bract oblong, acute and tubular. Dorsal sepal erect, white with bright green converging concave stripes, with a few broken half way; the lateral pair brownish pink. Sepals bright green with pinkish brown tips, with green veins and few irregular dark purple spots. Lip is yellowish green shaded with pale pink and networked with green.

The Pursuit

The most thrilling and fascinating flower hunt of my life was for this species. This species is brought from neighbouring states in plenty and also collected from the region in large scales for commercial purposes for decades. Thus making it available in every house of the region, but very rarely found in its natural habitat. However, my desire to study the plant from its natural habitat took me twice to a deep forest which is one of the most isolated places of the Eastern Himalayas. I did good research on the habitat of this species from several referral books and information from various geographical database and undertook a journey of over 20 km through a narrow stream with vertical hills on both sides. The route was through the dense forests of the region with regular sightings of herds of elephants and leopards. The walk was against the flow of the stream with regular small but steep water falls all the way, 82 of them in total. The blooming time of the species was mentioned as February and March, so decided to make the trip in the mid of January. The temperature even at those low altitudes go down to 6 to 8C in the month of January, not to mention about the coldness of the flowing water in the stream. The whole journey of around 20 km was through that cold stream, with knee to waist deep water. The more I walked ahead the narrower the stream became, the narrower the stream the faster the flow of water. Each step was to be set with maximum alertness. By the half way, I understood this journey is like landing on the Moon, “no rescue at all”!!!. After 8 hours of tedious walk through waist high cold flowing waters, we reached the location I was searching for. My friend who came along helped me with fixing the tent and in cooking the dinner. In those winter months the days are very short in the Himalayas, it will be pitch-dark around 4:30 PM. Rested inside the tent with a camp fire in front of the tent to ward off wild animals. We both were so tired, but were deprived of sleep due to our wet feet and chilled body. Spend the whole night with headphones active. Next day, searched the whole area and we were blessed to find more than 80 plants of the species in buds. It was a wonderful moment to find such a rare species in its natural habitat, that also in abundance. I was really happy that a meticulous research on its location was proved right. Returned that afternoon with great pride. Hid the tent and few utensils we carried underneath few rocks, so as to avoid carrying them back and forth again in a few day’s of re-visit. The return was more memorable, sighting a herd of elephants, seventeen of them, blocking our way. It was a real photo shoot time for me, for around 3 continuous hours – nonstop!!!. However, I missed my 300mm/2.8 lens. By sunset those wild friends retired to their dense forest homes and we took the left over return journey under darkness, with several nosedives and tumbles. Luckily I had my camera equipments packed in water proof packs. Reached the village after 8 PM only to surprise the sleepy villagers. Again undertook the same thrilling journey in the first week of February for this wonderful photograph.