(Renz) X.H.Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang
Description
Herminium himalayanum is a small terrestrial orchid of the high Eastern Himalaya, documented in occurrence records principally from Bhutan, where it is a rare and infrequently collected alpine plant. It inhabits the alpine zone, growing among short turf, mossy banks, damp meadows and the margins of scrub above the treeline, where the flowering individual shown was photographed on the Ludlow–Sherriff trail near Kem-La in Bhutan at 4300 m in July, during the brief monsoon-season flowering of these high pastures.
The plant is a slender, glabrous perennial arising from small subterranean tubers that store reserves through the dormant season. The stem is erect and bears one or few narrow, lanceolate to oblong leaves, often somewhat basal, sheathing at the base. The inflorescence is a slender, few- to several-flowered raceme of small, greenish to yellowish-green flowers. As in Herminium the floral segments are narrow and the labellum is characteristically lobed, frequently three-lobed with elongate divisions and lacking a developed spur or with only a slight saccate base. The column is short, bearing two pollinia attached to viscidia, and the fruit is a small erect capsule liberating dust-like seeds.
The accepted placement of the species follows a molecular recircumscription of the Herminium alliance, the taxon having previously been treated under the segregate genus Bhutanthera, as reflected in its earlier name Bhutanthera himalayana; subsequent phylogenetic work transferred it to Herminium. As a narrow high-alpine Eastern Himalayan endemic with very few known localities, it is of biogeographic interest and should be regarded as data-deficient and potentially of conservation concern given its restricted range and fragile habitat.
Author: (Renz) X.H.Jin, Schuit., Raskoti & Lu Q.Huang · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb), Flora of Bhutan, Jin et al. phylogeny of Herminium and Bhutanthera, CITES Appendices