Nilgiri Bulb-Leaf Orchid is an orchid found growing on trees, with rhizome creeping, runner-like. Pseudo-bulbs are fleshy, yellowish-green, 2-3 cm long, conical-ovoid, faintly 4-angled. Leaf is single, apical, stalkless, 4-12 x 1.5-3 cm, elliptic-oblong, tip blunt, leathery. Flowers are borne in lateral racemes, 6-10 cm long, sheathing at base. Flowers are brownish, about 1 cm long, dense; bracts small, oblong-lanceshaped. Lateral sepals 1 cm long, ovate-tapering; dorsal sepal about 5 mm long. Petals are small; lateral petals ovate-triangular, awned. Lip dark red, 3-lobed, spurred at base, mid-lobe thick, grooved dorsally, fleshy, laterals membranous. Column short, produced above into 2 teeth. Nilgiri Bulb-Leaf Orchid is found in Peninsular India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Myanmar. Flowering: December-January.
Identification credit: Ravee Bhat Photographed in Sirsi, Karnataka.