(King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng
Description
Hemipilia puberula is a terrestrial orchid of the temperate Sino-Himalayan mountains, recorded from China, Bhutan, India and Myanmar, with 41 GBIF occurrences indicating a relatively restricted eastern Himalayan and southwest Chinese distribution. It grows on grassy and rocky slopes, in open forest margins and among scrub in the cool montane to subalpine zone, generally between about 2400 and 3500 m. The illustrated plant was found at Menchuang in Bhutan at around 2650 m in June, in the upper temperate belt where flushed slopes and forest edges support a scattered terrestrial orchid flora.
The plant develops from a small ovoid or ellipsoid tuber and typically bears one (sometimes two) basal leaf that is ovate to elliptic and frequently spotted or mottled with purplish blotches above. The slender erect stem carries a lax raceme of a few showy flowers. These are rosy-purple to pinkish-lilac, with spreading sepals and petals and a prominent, broad, flabellate lip that is often notched or lobed at the apex and bears a slender backward-pointing spur; the epithet puberula refers to the fine minute pubescence on the plant. The fruit is an erect ribbed capsule.
The basionym authority (King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng reflects the modern recircumscription of Hemipilia to include species formerly placed in Chusua and segregated from Ponerorchis, supported by molecular phylogenetic study. The genus belongs to tribe Orchideae and is a Sino-Himalayan group of tuberous terrestrial orchids. With its limited range and showy flowers, H. puberula is locally uncommon and potentially vulnerable to grazing and collection, and is regulated under CITES Appendix II.
Author: (King & Pantl.) Y.Tang & H.Peng · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb), Tang, Xiang & Peng (Hemipilia phylogeny)