(Lam.) Schltr.
Description
Geodorum densiflorum is a widespread terrestrial orchid ranging across tropical and subtropical Asia and into the Pacific, recorded from India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, China, Japan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, the Philippines, New Guinea, Australia and numerous islands, with well over a thousand documented occurrences. It grows in open deciduous and bamboo forest, grassy slopes, scrub and roadside banks, usually in seasonally dry, well-drained ground from the lowlands to mid-elevations. The plant photographed near Paro in Bhutan at 2400 m in June represents the upper part of its altitudinal range, flowering with the onset of the monsoon.
The species arises from underground, corm-like pseudobulbs that store water and reserves through the dry season. The leaves are few, large, broadly elliptic-lanceolate and plicate, with prominent parallel venation, narrowed to a petiole-like base and often appearing with or after the flowers. The inflorescence is unmistakable: a stout scape terminating in a dense, sharply nodding or recurved raceme so that the flowers face downward, the apex curving over before erecting in fruit. The flowers are pink to white with a pouched, whitish labellum marked yellow or purple within. The column is short and the fruit a pendent capsule.
In GBIF the name appears as a synonym, with Geodorum densiflorum treated as the accepted name; the species is the type of the small palaeotropical genus Geodorum within tribe Cymbidieae, distinguished by its characteristic nodding inflorescence. Its wide range, ecological tolerance and frequent occurrence in disturbed habitats make it relatively secure, though, like all orchids, it is listed on CITES Appendix II.
Author: (Lam.) Schltr. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of China, The Orchids of Bhutan (Pearce & Cribb), Flora of British India, CITES Appendices