(Lindl.) X.H.Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang
Description
Herminium latilabre is a terrestrial orchid widely distributed across the Himalaya and Sino-Himalayan region, recorded from China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan and Myanmar, with GBIF logging 414 occurrences, making it among the better-collected taxa in this group. It grows in moist montane forest, grassy slopes, mossy banks and forest margins. The illustrated plant was photographed at Pemagatse in Bhutan at about 1800 m, flowering in October, a humid mid-montane setting under partial shade.
It is a small, slender tuberous geophyte arising from a subterranean tuberoid. One or a few narrow, lanceolate to elliptic leaves are borne low on the stem, which terminates in a slender raceme of numerous small, greenish to yellowish-green flowers. The flowers are non-resupinate to weakly so, with a broad, often expanded labellum (the epithet latilabre, broad-lipped) and a reduced or absent spur, the column short and characteristic of the genus. The fruit is a small dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds.
The species is accepted. Its present circumscription reflects recent molecular and morphological work by X.H. Jin, Schuiteman, Raskoti and colleagues, who have reorganised the boundaries between Herminium and allied genera such as Androcorys and Monorchis. Like most temperate terrestrial orchids it depends on mycorrhizal fungi for germination and establishment, and is pollinated by small insects attracted to the inconspicuous flowers. Its broad range and frequency suggest a secure status, though grassland conversion poses local pressures.
Author: (Lindl.) X.H.Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, Flora of Bhutan, Raskoti's Orchids of Nepal