Kuntze
Description
Pinalia leucantha is an epiphytic orchid of the central and eastern Himalaya, recorded from northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and adjacent southern China, with georeferenced collections (c. 59 in GBIF) along the moist subtropical to lower temperate belt of the range. It typically grows on mossy trunks and major branches of broad-leaved forest trees, occasionally on shaded rocks, between roughly 1000 and 2000 m. The photographed plant from Gorkha district, Gunda (1700 m, flowering in May), is characteristic of this monsoon-influenced habitat, where high humidity and a marked dry winter govern the growth cycle.
The species is a tufted, sympodial epiphyte forming clustered, fusiform to cylindrical pseudobulbs that are several-noded and clothed when young in papery sheaths. Each pseudobulb bears a few apical, oblong-lanceolate to elliptic, coriaceous leaves with acute tips. The inflorescence is a lateral to subterminal raceme carrying numerous small, whitish to cream flowers, the floral parts frequently invested with fine ferruginous hairs typical of the genus. Sepals and petals are spreading, the lateral sepals adnate to the column foot to form a short mentum; the lip is three-lobed with a fleshy, often keeled disc, and the pollinia are eight, waxy and clavate.
The genus Pinalia comprises species formerly placed in a broadly circumscribed Eria, segregated within tribe Podochileae (subtribe Eriinae) on vegetative and column characters supported by molecular data, and many Himalayan epiphytes have been recombined into it. As a widespread forest epiphyte, P. leucantha is not currently regarded as threatened, though like most epiphytic orchids it is sensitive to deforestation and collection; CITES Appendix II listing applies to all Orchidaceae in trade.
Author: Kuntze · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of Bhutan, Flora of China (Orchidaceae), The Orchids of Bhutan