Hochr.
Description
Eulophia dabia is a terrestrial orchid distributed across the temperate and subtropical belts of Central and southern Asia, with verified records (some 166 GBIF occurrences) spanning China, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, reflecting a broadly Irano-Turanian to Sino-Himalayan range. In the Himalaya it favours open grassy slopes, scrubland and disturbed pasture on well-drained soils, flowering with the onset of pre-monsoon warmth. The plant illustrated was photographed near Tullikot in the Gorkha district of central Nepal at about 2000 m in May, typical of the species' preference for sunlit, seasonally dry meadow habitats at middle elevations.
The species is a tuberous geophyte producing subterranean, somewhat cormous pseudobulbs from which arise erect, often leafless or scarcely leafy flowering scapes that emerge before or with the foliage. The leaves are linear-lanceolate, plicate and grass-like, sheathing at the base. Flowers are borne in a loose terminal raceme; the tepals are narrow and spreading, typically dull greenish to purplish-brown, while the trilobed labellum bears longitudinal lamellae or papillose crests and a short spur or saccate base. The fruit is a pendent, ellipsoid dehiscent capsule releasing dust-like seeds adapted for wind dispersal and obligate mycorrhizal germination.
Within Eulophia, a large pantropical genus, E. dabia belongs to the group of dry-ground terrestrials whose seasonal, drought-deciduous habit suits monsoonal climates. Like all orchids it is listed under CITES Appendix II, restricting international trade, though the species itself is not regarded as globally threatened owing to its wide range. Its dependence on mycorrhizal fungi and on grazed or open grassland makes it sensitive to land-use change and overgrazing at the local scale.
Author: Hochr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Nepal, Flora of China, The Orchids of the Himalaya (King & Pantling), CITES Appendix II