ORCHIDS OF INDIA

Common name: Small Warty Acampe • Sanskrit: Gandhanakuli, Rasna Botanical name: Acampe papillosa    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Acampe carinata Small Warty Acampe is a clump-forming orchid found in the Eastern Himalayas, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanamar, up to an altitude of 200 m. It is a large sized, single-stemmed, warm growing epiphyte. It looks very much like a Vanda. It has a stout erect to curved stem carrying narrowly oblong, strap-shaped, leathery leaves. Leaves are slightly notched into 2 unequal lobes. Flowers arise in the fall on a short, 1 inch long, many (10-12)         Common name: Acampe orchid, Maravasha (Marathi), Taliyamaravada (Malayalam) Botanical name: Acampe praemorsa    Family: Orchidaceae (orchid family) Acampe is a genus of seven orchid species distributed from tropical Africa to India, eastwards to China and southwards to Malaya, Indonesia, the Philippines and New Guinea. The name Acampe was derived from the Greek word akampas, meaning "rigid", referring to the little, brittle, inflexible flowers. These species produce slow-growing, medium-sized vines that form very large vegetative masses in nature. They are noted for their thick, leathery, distichous leaves. They produce fragrant small to medium-sized yellow flowers, barred with brown stripes, in a few to many-flowered racemose inflorescence. The brittle sepals and petals look alike. The ear-shaped, fringed, white labellum (lip) is saccate (sac-shaped) or has a spur, and has red markings at its base. The fleshy column is short and has two waxy pollinia. Due to their large size and small flowers, they are rarely cultivated. Acampe praemorsa is native to India and Srilanka.              Common name: Curled Aerides Botanical name: Aerides crispa     Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Aerides crispum (?) Curled Aerides is an epiphytic orchid found in SW India at elevations of 800-1200 m. It has a thick dull violet purple stem carrying spreading, thick, leathery, pale green leaves, dull-violet -purple basally. Leaves are strap-shaped, unequally bilobed at the tip with a small tip between the lobes. Inflorescens is a 40-50 cm long, erect to arching, branched, 20 to 25 flowered cluster, carrying fragrant flowers.                Common name: Fox Brush Orchid, Cat's-tail Orchid • Marathi: Thipke irid amri • Kannada: Drupadi Pushpa Botanical name: Aerides maculosa    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Saccolabium speciosum, Aerides schroederi, Aerides illustris Fox Brush Orchid is a dwarf orchid species with crystalline pink, spotted magenta, fragrant flowers to 2cm. The spikes are arching to pendulous, to about 25cm long with many flowers. They occur mainly in Asia : the Indian subcontinent, Nepal, Southern China, SE Asia, the Philippines, New Guinea. They form pendulous racemes with many fragrant, long-lasting, waxy flowers, in white, (rarely) yellow, purple or pink colors, with a forward facing spur, growing on stout many-leaved stems from the leaf axils. The leaves grow distichously (in two vertical rows) The leaf margins are bilobed, while the apex is emarginate.       Common name: Crested Coelogyne • Hindi: Gondya • Nepali: Chandi gabha Botanical name: Coelogyne cristata    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Crested Coelogyne is a very common orchid found growing on forest trees in the Himalayas, from Uttarakhand to Sikkim, at altitudes of 1000-2000 m. Joseph Hooker, who collected orchids and other plants in 1848-1850, recorded that "On the ascent from Darjeeling the straight shafts of many of the timber trees are literally clothed with a continuous garment of white-flowered coelogynes, which bloom in a profuse manner, whitening their trunks like snow". Flowers are white, in hanging clusters, with a white lip with 4 yellow ridges at the base between the lateral lobes, and with 2 broad crenulate yellow plates on the mid-lobe. Flowers are 5-9 cm across, borne in 3-10 flowered clusters 15-20 cm long. Sepals and petals are 4-5 cm long, oblong blunt with wavy margins. Bracts are oblong and persistent. Spur is absent. Leaves are paired, linear-lanceshaped 15-30 cm long, 2-3 cm broad. Pseudobulbs are oblong ovoid, 5-8 cm, arising from a stout rhizome. Flowering: March-April. Medicinal uses: Juice of the pseudobulb is applied to boils. This juice is also put in the wound on the hooves of animals.          Common name: Clustered Coelogyne Botanical name: Coelogyne corymbosa    Family: Orchidaceae (Orchid family) Synonyms: Pleione corymbosa Clustered Coelogyne is an epiphytic orchid distinguished by its small pseudobulbs, and its erect clusters of only 2-4 white fragrant flowers each up to 5 cm across. Sepals and petals are white, broadly lanceshaped, lip oblong with broad blunt erect lateral lobes, the central lobe triangular-ovate, brown at base with two yellow blotches and with a white terminal part. Leaves are oblong-elliptic, 10-18 cm long. Pseudobulbs are 2.5-4 cm, borne on a thick rhizome. Clustered Coelogyne is found in Eastern Himalayas, from C. Nepal to NE India and SW China, at altitudes of 2200-3300 m. Flowering: April-June.