Habenaria panigrahiana Misra (1981: 213)

Kumar, Pankaj, Prabhukumar, Konickal Mambetta, Nirmesh, Thankappan Kureekadu, Sreekumar, Vadakkethil Balakrishnan, Hareesh, Vadakkoot Sankaran & Balachandran, Indira, 2016, Habenaria sahyadrica (Orchidaceae, Orchideae) a new species from the Western Ghats (India) with critical notes on allied taxa, Phytotaxa 244 (2), pp. 196-200 : 198-199

Habenaria panigrahiana Misra (1981: 213)

Type:— INDIA . Orissa State: Ganjam District, Mohana, 19º26 ′ N, 84º17 ′ E, 500m, 3 October 1975. Misra 122 (holotype: CAL!).

Heterotypic synonyms: Habenaria panigrahiana var. parviloba Misra (1981: 214) , syn. no v.

Type:— INDIA . Orissa State: Ganjam District, Bhanjanagar, 19º57 ′ N, 84º35 ′ E, 200m, 25 January 1976, Misra 176 (holotype: CAL!).

Habenaria ramayyana Ramachandra Chary&Wood (1981:235) , syn. nov. Type:— INDIA . Andhra Pradesh: Amrabad Forest Reserve, Bahrapur, 700 m, 9 November 1979, Ramachandra Chary 642 (holotype:

CAL!)

[Description from Misra 1981] Terrestrial herbs, 22–35 cm tall, stem cylindric, leafy from base upwards mainly on the upper two thirds, lower third with close fitting sheaths. Tuber one, perfectly globose, 15 mm in diameter and directly below the stem. Leaves 7–9 spreading, alternate, elliptic-lanceolate, 8–11 × 3–4 cm, acute; base narrow, petiole like; leaf margin sometimes undulate; veins and veinlets conspicuous; the lamina and scape covered with greyish coating when fresh. Inflorescence erect, 13–18 cm long. Peduncle terete, 6–8 cm long, with 2–3 sheathing, lanceolate, acuminate bracts which are 28 × 10 mm, trinerved. Raceme 6–9 cm long, laxly 8–11-flowered. Bracts foliaceous, rolled over the ovary half its length, then twisted and remaining free as long as or shorter than the ovary, lanceolate, to 18 × 6 mm, acuminate with 3 brownish nerved, central nerve strong and continuing to apex, the lateral sub-terminating and covering the central and with a fainter branch shortly above the base extending half the length. Flowers 30–35 mm long, shortly pedicellate, green, inodorous; sepals unequal, trinerved, nerves brownish, continuing to the apex, the central one strong; dorsal sepal hooded over the column, concave, lanceolate, acute, 7–8 × 4 mm; lateral sepals reflexed, keeled, their apices inflexed, sometimes touching each other, obliquely ovate-lanceolate, sub-falcate, 8–9 × 4 mm; petals bipartite to the base; upper segment erect, sickle-shaped, close to the margin of the dorsal sepal, base about 2 mm wide and then abruptly narrowly linear, 10–12 mm long, 2-veined; the outer one shorter and forking into the lower segment which is inclined about 15º above or sometimes almost horizontal, reflexed, 17 × 0.6 mm, the basal two-third filiform, straight, the apical third more filiform, upcurved; lip tripartite to the base with narrowly linear-filiform, subequal and wide-spreading segments; lateral segments together forming an angle of about 150º, ± resembling the lower segment of the petal, 19 × 0.75 mm, the basal half straight, nearly 1 mm wide, the apical half more filiform, curved upwards and inwards, being solitary while taking off from the edge of the lip base, branching twice on the inner side making 3 parallel veins; mid-segment straight or slightly bent at the obtuse apex, narrowly linear, 12–16 × 1 mm, 3-veined; spur in contact with the ovary or the upper half somewhat bent laterally and backwards, 18 × 1.2 mm, narrowed at the base, mouth narrowly infundibuliform, apex obtuse; column 4 × 2 mm; pollen narrowly trapezoid; caudicle transparent, filiform, 3 mm long with a dilated apex and a brown reniform gland at the base; staminodes 2, extending from the column laterally and downwardly, sub-orbicular, surface papillose; stigmatic processes rounded, oblong, ligulate, about 2 × 1 mm, base oblique, close to and around the entrance to the spur; midlobe of rostellum low, rounded; lateral lobes abruptly narrowed, filiform, bent upwards, lying immediately below the anther tubes; ovary green, 20 × 2 mm, slightly fusiform and curved at apex, strongly ribbed.

Notes:— Habenaria panigrahiana var. panigrahiana , H. panigrahiana var. parviloba and H. ramayyana were described in the same year from different localities. Habenaria panigrahiana var. parviloba was originally described from wilted specimens and partly from the ex-situ collection, and we believe that characters like smaller flowers, angular differences between lobes of petals and lobes of labellum are superficial.