The Orchids of the Sikkim-Himalayas – Page 3 – Naresh Swami | The Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya

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.

Mycaranthes pannea (Lindl.) S.C. Chen & J.J.Wood.

Epiphyte. Rhizomes thick, stems very short, even unnoticeable. Leaves pendulous, fleshy, cylindrical, pointed at the apex, 5 to 8 cm long and less than .35 cm in diameter. Peduncle woolly, terminal with 1 to 3 flowers. Flowers about 1 to 1.5 cm across, sepals and petal bright yellow with green shade while opening and turns to orange shade in a day or two. Lip is with shades of dark brown with a bright yellow marking on its apex. Dorsal sepal broadly elliptic, lateral pair ovate to triangular, spreading. Petals smaller than the sepals, elliptic. Lip fleshy, oblong, concave, downy with oblong granular calli near the base and apex. Sepals and petals externally pubescent.

Eria pannea, lindl (Mycaranthes pannea, Lindl) — Eria pannea lindl (Mycaranthes pannea Lindl)

The Pursuit

A very interesting plant with pendulous narrow cylindrical fleshy leaves. The leaves are seen hanging down in long lines from the under side of tree branches. I had spotted this rarely only. The species is getting rarer and rarer, hence I put extra attention on the specimens I found and waited for them to be in flowers. The climb up the tree was very hard as the single trunk tree was a huge old one with no support to climb. The villagers of the area who are very familiar with climbing trees did a lot of hard work in helping me to climb up the tree along with my camera equipments up the tree. The first day of documentation was not satisfying as I was not able to bring out the hairy details of the flowers. My desire to back lit the flower with flashes at this great height made it a very difficult task. After several ideas and attempts I was able to fix the flashes on the appropriate position to bring out such a wonderful photograph of the species with amazing details.

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 bractescens (Lindl) Kuntze.

Epiphyte. Pseudo-bulbs cylindric, closely arranged, minutely curved, slightly tapered to its apex. Bulbs are wrinkled during the flowering time. Leaves 3 to 5 from the apex of the bulb, 4 to 7 cm long and 1.5 to 3 cm in width, elliptic-oblong, tapering to its base. Racemes 2 to 4, arising from the axil of the leaves, peduncles sheathed. Flowers 4 to 5, 2 cm across. Sepals, petals, sheaths and its racemes are of an uniform yellow colour; the lamellae on the lip is orange red. Sepals sub-acute; the dorsal narrowly elliptic, arching over the lip; the lateral spreading, broader than the dorsal. Petals much shorter than the sepals, oblong and blunt. Lip oblong, widening towards its three lobed apex, lateral lobes erect, terminal entire and blunt, the apex deflexed. The disc with three glandular margined lamellae.

The Pursuit

The rarest of the rare from the region The authors King and Pantling admitted its non-existence in the region. They took the reference from a couple of drawings made by Late Dr. Simons from specimens collected from Assam, another far away North East state. In the referral book the altitude of this species was mentioned as between 1000 and 3000 ft. I made a comparative study of tropical places of Assam and that of Sikkim-Himalayas and decided to search for this species from those locations. One note of the authors assisted in the further search of the species. They mentioned about another species Eria confusa, Hook as its nearest allied species. I was knowing the habitats of Eria confusa, Hook from the region and concentrated my search on the same habitats of it for this species. Thousands of trees from several square kilometers were searched for this species everyday. Every other day the journey was extending further east on the tropical zone. I came to know about an orchid lover of that locality who had devoted his life in conserving the local species. He was nice enough to accompany me to many locations and show me different species. But the wanted one was missing. With his advice, I shifted to a location near to a protected forest area of the region at a very low altitude. As the main railway line to the North East states passes through that area, everyday me and my team travelled half the way by train, which was cheaper and faster. Six days went off with no trace of this species. In between I found another 4 species which I haven’t got earlier, which compensated the huge financial logistics spend of this particular species. On the seventh day, a herd of wild elephants created havoc in the area and we were forced to move to another location which was around 2 km away from our actual planned search area for the day. I was very much disappointed while walking to the new location. After an hour of search I found three plants with so much similarities to this species. Cross checked with the referral books, it was almost the same. Made arrangements with a very responsible person of that area to visit the plant once in every five days and report to me over phone. He was kind enough to oblige responsibly. Finally after 23 days he reported sighting of racemes and I again visited the place to find 14 raceme all together. By the presence of the sheaths on each of its peduncles I understood this was the species I was looking for. It took another six days and two more visits to see those in bloom and produced this wonderful photograph. On the final day as we were waiting on the railway platform to catch our train back, the 12423 Dibrugarh-New Delhi down Rajdhani whistled pass there making my eyes wet. When ever I see the Delhi bound Rajdhani I go home sick!!!

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.