(Lindl.) P.F.Hunt
Description
Galearis spathulata is a small terrestrial orchid of the high Himalaya and the mountains of western China, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar, with over 500 occurrences in GBIF. It is a plant of moist alpine and subalpine meadows, open Rhododendron and juniper scrub, grassy slopes and rocky turf, generally between about 3,000 and 4,500 m. The illustrated gatherings span this range, from Lachung in Sikkim at around 3,100 m in June to Baga-La-Phedi in West Nepal at about 4,300 m in July, where the species flowers through the early summer monsoon.
It is a dwarf, glabrous perennial herb arising from slender, fleshy root-tubers and bearing usually one or two basal, spathulate to oblong leaves that taper to a sheathing base. The short, erect stem terminates in a few-flowered raceme of small purplish-pink flowers, each subtended by a bract. The dorsal sepal and petals converge to form a hood over the column, the lateral sepals spreading; the labellum is entire to obscurely lobed, directed forward and produced at the base into a short, cylindrical to saccate spur. The fruit is an erect, ribbed capsule releasing dust-like seeds.
Galearis is a small holarctic-temperate to Sino-Himalayan genus segregated from Orchis, and G. spathulata is distinguished by its spathulate basal leaves and short-spurred, hooded flowers. Pollination is by insects, with seedling establishment dependent on mycorrhizal association, as in all orchids. Widespread and locally common across the alpine Himalaya, the species is not regarded as threatened, although, being an orchid, it falls under the general CITES Appendix II listing for the family.
Author: (Lindl.) P.F.Hunt · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Annotated Checklist of the Flowering Plants of Nepal, Pridgeon et al. Genera Orchidacearum