Appendicula penicillata

Appendicula penicillata Blume, Rumphia 4 (1849) 46, pl. 195, fig. 4, pl. 200D

Type: Zippel s.n. (New Guinea) (holo L)

Rhizome very short. Stems straight to somewhat curved, terete, rigid, 7.5-10 cm long, many-leaved. Leaf sheaths tubular, striate, minutely squamulose-punctate, apex obliquely truncate. Leaves twisted at the base so as to lie in one plane, patent, narrowly oblong, 3.7-5 by 0.63-0.84 cm, underneath minutely squamulose-punctate, apex obtuse, retuse, oblique, mucronate. Inflorescences terminal, racemose, 1.7-3.1 cm long; peduncle very short, densely many-flowered. Floral bracts elliptic, soon becoming reflexed, margins finely erose. Ovary clavate. Median sepal ovate-lanceolate, apex acuminate. Lateral sepals very broadly obliquely ovate-triangular, apex acuminate; mentum inflated, obtuse. Petals linear-spathulate, only slightly shorter than the sepals, very thin-textured, apex obtuse. Lip concave, broader in the basal part, above the basal part constricted, blade ovate, acute, thicker, with a minute callus, inside on the blade with two longitudinal keels which converge towards the base into a pencil-like, hooked appendage. Column oblique, semiterete, at the apex on either side with two obtuse teeth; rostellum semi-bifid; column-foot elongated, recurved, more or less concave. Fruit oblong, triangular in cross section.
(After Blume, 1849).

Colours: Flower whitish.

Habitat: Epiphyte in lowland forest.

Flowering time in the wild: Not known

Distribution: Malesia (New Guinea, endemic).

Distribution in New Guinea: Papua (Indonesia). See map: 57-155M.JPG

Cultivation: Warm growing epiphyte.