(Hook.f.) Kraenzl.
Description
Platanthera concinna (Hook.f.) Kraenzl. is a terrestrial orchid of the high eastern Himalaya. GBIF records, though few (around two dozen occurrences), place it in India and Bhutan, with an anomalous South African record almost certainly representing misidentification or a database error; in practice it is a narrowly Himalayan species. It grows in alpine and subalpine meadows, grassy slopes and open scrub near and above the treeline, at elevations of roughly 3,000 to 4,200 m. The plant recorded at Dzongri at 3,800 m, flowering in June, is characteristic of its high-elevation summer anthesis on humid alpine turf.
The species is a slender, erect terrestrial herb arising from ellipsoid to fusiform root-tubers. The stem bears a few narrow, lanceolate to oblong cauline leaves that sheath at the base. The inflorescence is a lax to moderately dense terminal raceme of small flowers, typically greenish to greenish-white; the dorsal sepal and petals form a hood, the lateral sepals spread, and the lip is narrow and entire to obscurely lobed with a slender, descending spur containing nectar, adapted to pollination by long-tongued insects.
Platanthera is a large, mainly north-temperate genus of butterfly-orchids, and the Himalayan species form a taxonomically difficult complex once dispersed among Habenaria and allied genera. The limited number of records reflects both its restricted high-altitude habitat and undercollection. As an alpine orchid with a small documented range, it warrants conservation attention, and like all Orchidaceae it is protected under CITES Appendix II.
Author: (Hook.f.) Kraenzl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan Vol. 3 Part 3 (Orchids), Flora of China Vol. 25, Pearce & Cribb: The Orchids of Bhutan (2002)