Lindl.
Description
Coelogyne ovalis Lindl. is an epiphytic orchid of the Himalaya and northern Southeast Asia, recorded by GBIF from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia and Indonesia, with cultivated records from Europe and North America, totalling some 235 occurrences. It grows as an epiphyte, and occasionally a lithophyte, on mossy trunks and rocks in humid evergreen and mixed montane forest, typically between about 1000 and 2500 m. The plant photographed near Wangdi in Bhutan at about 2500 m in September, at the close of the monsoon, represents the upper part of this range, where cool, perennially moist conditions favour the genus.
The species has a creeping rhizome bearing well-spaced, ovoid to oblong-cylindric pseudobulbs, each topped by two thin-textured, plicate, lanceolate to elliptic leaves that taper to a stalked base. The inflorescence arises from the apex of a developing or mature pseudobulb and carries one or a few comparatively large flowers in succession. The sepals and petals are narrow and pale yellowish to buff or olive-tinged; the broad three-lobed labellum is the showiest part, marked with rich brown to maroon blotches and bearing fringed keels along the disc, with erect lateral lobes flanking the column.
Coelogyne is a large Asian genus of subtribe Coelogyninae, and C. ovalis is placed in section Fuliginosae, characterised by successively produced, brown-marked flowers. It is reasonably widespread and is grown in cultivation, so it is not regarded as globally threatened, although wild populations are pressured by habitat loss and over-collection; like all orchids it is listed on CITES Appendix II. Its broad Indo-Himalayan to Sundaic range makes it a good example of the orchid connection between the Himalaya and Southeast Asia.
Author: Lindl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Pradhan Indian Orchids, Clayton monograph The Genus Coelogyne