Habenaria commelinifolia
(Roxb.) Wall. ex Lindl.
In Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 325 (1835)
Orchis commelinifolia Roxb. in Fl. Ind., ed. 1832. 3: 451 (1832)
Pecteilis commelinifolia (Roxb.) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones in Austral. Orchid Rev. 83(6): 51 (2018)
Orchis stylosanthes Ham. ex Hook.f. in Fl. Brit. India 6: 143 (1890)
Platanthera commelinifolia Lindl. ex Wall. in Numer. List: n.° 7037 (1832), nom. nud.
Ecology It grows in open grass land on hill slopes in semi evergreen forest
Terrestrial herbs. 42-78 cm tall.
Tubers 1-2, 4-7x 1-2 cm, ellipsoidal.
Leaves cauline, alternately distichous, 6-20 x 1.5-3.5 cm, sub conduplicate, oblong or oblong-lanceolate, acute or rarely sub spinescent, the margins white or yellowish, entire, minutely papillate, becoming smaller and gradually merging into the inflorescence bracts,
Bracts 3-4 cm long, unequal, the lower ones completely amplexicaul, the upper ones smaller, semiamplexicaul, lanceolate, acuminate, finely ciliolate.
Inflorescence 7-20 cm long, somewhat dense. Peduncle 15-35 cm long, terete, rigid, pale green, bracteate
Flowers greenish-white, sessile, bracteate.
Bracts about 2.5x 0.4 cm, lanceolate, acuminate, finely ciliolate, the upper ones smaller.
Sepals white, 3-nerved ; dorsal sepal 6.5 x 5.5 nun, broadly obovate-oblong, strongly concave in the upper half, mucronulate; lateral sepals 12.5x 7 mm, parallel to each other and reflexed enclosing the apical portions of the ovary and spur, obliquely obovate-oblong, rounded at the apex.
Petals 6x 4 mm, white, more or less quadrately oblong, subacute, entire, 1-nerved. Lip white, 3-partite almost to the base; lateral lobes 2-3 cm long, somewhat filiform, spreading, acute; midlobe 1.5-2 cm long, narrowly linear, strap-shapped, acute.
Spur 5-6.5 cm long, 1.5-3mm in diameter, curved, clavate.
Column 4-5 mm long, oblong, greenish-white. Anther cells parallel at the base, tubes long white; pollinia small, caudicle nearly 1cm long, gland minute, globular; staminodes small, oblong, on the sides of the anther cells and curving round in front of the tubes.
Stigmatic processes green, in between the anther cells and below the 3-10bed rostellum, each somewhat falcate.
Ovary 3-3.5 cm long, curved, strongly ribbed, sessile, beak nearly 2 cm long.
Flowering: August to October.
Fruiting: Up to November.