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Nervilia Comm. ex Gaudich.

Sub family: Epidendroideae
Tribe: Nervilieae
Sub tribe: Nerviliinae
Salient features 

  • Terrestrial herb growing from underground spherical tubers

  • Leaf solitary produced after inflorescence has withered; ovate, lanceolate, elliptic or cordate; erect or borne parallel to the substrate either adpressed to the substrate or above it; green or maked or spotted with purple on upper side green or purple beneath hairy or glabrous

  • Inflorescence erect racemose; floral bracts lanceolate persisitant, one to many flowered 

  • Flowers short lived, resupinate, subcampanulate, spreading or pendent, some times self pollinating sepals sub similar not spreading widely linear lanceolate

  • Petals similar to sepals but shorter & membranous

  • Labellum embracing column, entire to three lobed bearing lamellar or hairy callus, rarely spurred at the base 

  • Column clavate; anthers incumbent, two celled; pollinia two sectile; stigma ventral; ovary six ribbed

 

1. Nerivilia section Linervia schltr

  • Inflorescence one flowered, leaf reniform often pubescent 

  • Lip lacking spur

  • It is represented by only one species at Sindhudurg district

Nervilia simplex (Thouars) Schltr.

  • Arethusa simplex Thouars in Hist. Orchid.: t. 24 (1822)

  • Epidendrum simplex (Thouars) Spreng. in Syst. Veg., ed. 16. 3: 736 (1826)

  • Pogonia simplex (Thouars) Rchb.f. in Xenia Orchid. 2: 92 (1865)

  • Aplostellis simplex Thouars in Hist. Orchid.: t. 24 (1822)

  • Bolborchis crociformis Zoll. & Moritzi in A.Moritzi, Syst. Verz. Java: 89 (1846)

  • Coelogyne javanica Lindl. in Fol. Orchid. 5: 17 (1854)

  • Nervilia bathiei Senghas in Adansonia, n.s., 4: 303 (1964)

  • Nervilia bollei (Rchb.f.) Schltr. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 45: 405 (1911)

  • Nervilia crispata (Blume) Schltr. ex K.Schum. & Lauterb. in Fl. Schutzgeb. Südsee: 240 (1900)

  • Nervilia crociformis (Zoll. & Moritzi) Seidenf. in Dansk Bot. Ark. 32: 151 (1978)

  • Nervilia erosa P.J.Cribb in Kew Bull. 32: 155 (1977)

  • Nervilia fimbriata Schltr. in K.M.Schumann & C.A.G.Lauterbach, Fl. Schutzgeb. Südsee, Nachtr.: 82 (1905)

  • Nervilia francoisii H.Perrier in Bull. Trimestriel Acad. Malgache, n.s., 21: 304 (1928)

  • Nervilia humilis Schltr. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 53: 551 (1915)

  • Nervilia monantha Blatt. & McCann in J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc. 35: 724 (1932)

  • Nervilia prainiana (King & Pantl.) Seidenf. in Dansk Bot. Ark. 32(2): 149 (1978)

  • Nervilia reniformis Schltr. in Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 53: 551 (1915)

  • Pogonia bollei Rchb.f. in Xenia Orchid. 2: 88 (1865)

  • Pogonia crispata Blume in Mus. Bot. 1: 32 (1849)

  • Pogonia prainiana King & Pantl. in J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, Pt. 2, Nat. Hist. 65: 129 (1896)

  • Pogonia thouarsii Blume in Coll. Orchid.: 152 (1859)

  • Stellorkis aplostellis Thouars in Hist. Orchid.: t. 24 (1822)

Ecology: It grows on moss coverd rocks with leaf litter as well on humid soil under dense shades of trees in evergreen forest 

 

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Tuber 12-22 mm in diam., subglobose with several root-knobs. 

Leaf broadly funnel-shaped on opening, latter spreading on the ground, appearing after the flowers ; petiole 2-4 cm long; lamina 2-12 cm in diam .• orbicular-cordate or subreniform, uniformly green, subplicate and velvety with short glandular, greenish-white hairs on the upper surface, glabrous below ; the hairiness is more prominent when the leaf is freshly expanded. 

Scape 5-10 cm long in flower, up to 25 cm in fruit. I-flowered. pale pink with 2-3 acute or subacuminate pale-pink. wide-mouthed sheaths. 
Flower erect on opening. becoming suberect. then at maturity nodding and deflexed. Bracts small, triangular, acute. about 2 mm long. 

Sepals and petals similar. greenish white. often rose tinted. linear-oblanceolate, broader above the middle, tapering to the base. entire. acute; midnerve subcarinate below. with 1-2 pairs of faint lateral nerves. Sepals  subconcave.

Dorsal sepal 28x3mm longer than lateral; lateral 24x3mm 

Petals 20x2.5mm slightly shorter and narrower than sepals

Labellum 18-20 mm long, scarcely saccate. more or less tubular, obscurely 3-lobed; lateral lobes connivent around the column. narrow-oblong. entire; midlobe 3-4-lobulate. lateral lobules entire or subentire, slightly divergent, the middle one obscurely 2-lobed or entire, much wrinkled, subfimbriate in the sinuses between the lateral lobules. Lip pale pink. white at the base with 3 main nerves at the centre giving off papillate, purplish, hairy outgrowths on the midlobe •. the lateral nerves on the midlobe also somewhat hairy. 

Column 7-9x2 mm. broad and clavate, flat in front. rounded behind, glabrous, walls of the clinandrium denticulate. 

Anther 2 x 1.5 mm, squarish; pollinia two, 2x0.5mm, sectile. Ovary 5X2 mm long. oblong-ovoid ; pedicel 2 mm long, curved. 

Capsules 21 x7 mm decurved, broadly fusiform, 6-ribbed; beak 5-7 mm long.


Flowering: June.                     
Fruiting: July                        
Leaf: July to December.

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