(D.Don) P.F.Hunt & Summerh.
Description
Herminium monophyllum (D.Don) P.F.Hunt & Summerh. is a small terrestrial orchid of the Himalaya and western China, recorded by GBIF from India, Nepal, Bhutan and China across some 59 occurrences. It is a plant of open alpine and subalpine turf, grassy slopes, moist meadows and the margins of scrub, generally between about 3000 and 4300 m. The individual photographed at Tsochenchen in Bhutan at around 3800 m in June, during the brief alpine flowering flush, reflects its preference for cool, humid grassland kept moist through the growing season.
The plant grows from small subterranean tubers and produces a slender erect stem. As the epithet monophyllum indicates, there is characteristically a single principal basal leaf (sometimes with a second much smaller one), which is oblong to lanceolate, sheathing at the base. The inflorescence is a slender, rather lax to dense terminal raceme of numerous tiny greenish or greenish-yellow flowers. Each flower has narrow, somewhat hooded sepals and petals and a small three-lobed labellum without a true spur, the whole giving the inflorescence a delicate, grass-like appearance typical of the genus, which is pollinated chiefly by small insects.
Herminium is a genus of small-flowered terrestrial orchids of tribe Orchideae, distinguished by its spurless or near-spurless labellum and tuberous habit. Herminium monophyllum is one of several closely similar Himalayan species and can be confused with its relatives without close examination. It is inconspicuous and easily overlooked, and although not formally assessed as threatened it is restricted to high-altitude grassland that is vulnerable to overgrazing and warming; like all orchids it is protected under CITES Appendix II.
Author: (D.Don) P.F.Hunt & Summerh. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China, Pearce and Cribb Orchids of Bhutan, World Checklist of Orchidaceae