King & Pantl.
Description
Zeuxine reflexa is a small terrestrial orchid of the eastern Himalaya and adjacent regions, recorded from northern India, Nepal, Bhutan and Taiwan, the modest tally of 22 GBIF occurrences reflecting both its inconspicuous habit and its localised distribution. It grows in shaded, humus-rich situations on the floor of broad-leaved and subtropical forest, on mossy banks and in leaf litter, principally at lower to middle elevations around 1000-2000 m. The photographed plant was found near Punakha in Bhutan at 1500 m in April, the spring flowering period for this warm-temperate to subtropical forest-floor species.
It is a small herb with a fleshy, creeping, ascending rhizome rooting at the lower nodes and a short erect leafy stem. The few leaves are clustered toward the stem base, ovate to lanceolate, somewhat asymmetric and shortly petiolate with sheathing bases. The inflorescence is a slender, pubescent, few- to several-flowered terminal raceme of small flowers. The flowers are dull greenish to brownish with a contrasting white or pale lip; the dorsal sepal and petals are connivent into a hood, the lateral sepals often spreading or reflexed, and the saccate lip bears a pair of basal calli and a bilobed, frequently transversely broadened apical limb diagnostic of the genus.
Zeuxine is a genus of inconspicuous jewel-orchid relatives within subtribe Goodyerinae, distinguished from Goodyera and Anoectochilus chiefly by lip structure. Its dull, partly closed flowers suggest pollination by small insects or a degree of self-pollination, an effective strategy in the dim forest understorey. Owing to its small size and scattered records its true status is poorly documented, but it is not currently regarded as threatened; like all orchids it falls under CITES Appendix II, and its dependence on intact forest litter makes it sensitive to habitat clearance.
Author: King & Pantl. · Sources: POWO (Kew), GBIF, Flora of Bhutan, Pearce & Cribb: The Orchids of Bhutan, Pridgeon et al.: Genera Orchidacearum