Pleione saxicola Tang & F. T. Wang ex S. C. Chen Acta Phytotax. Sin. 25: 473. 1987.

岩生独蒜兰 yan sheng du suan lan

Herbs, epiphytic or terrestrial. Pseudobulb dark green, turbinate, dorsiventrally flattened, 0.7-1.1 × 1-2 cm, apex abruptly contracted into a conspicuous neck, outer sheaths slightly warty, 1-leaved. Leaf developing at flowering, suboblong-lanceolate to oblanceolate, 10-18 × 1.7-3.7 cm, papery, base attenuate into a petiole-like stalk 3-7 cm, apex acute. Inflorescence erect; peduncle 7-10 cm, with 2 or 3 membranous sheaths at base; floral bract oblanceolate, 20-30 × ca. 10 mm, exceeding ovary, apex acute. Flower solitary, large, to 10 cm in diam., rose-red with a white base and a yellow or white callus on lip. Sepals fused in basal half and forming a tube; dorsal sepal oblanceolate, ca. 63 × 8 mm, apex acute; lateral sepals slightly oblique, slightly wider at base than dorsal sepal, apex acute. Petals oblanceolate, slightly shorter and narrower than sepals, apex acute; lip broadly elliptic, ca. 55 × 22-25 mm, base cuneate and with a claw ca. 13 mm, distinctly 3-lobed above middle; lateral lobes broadly ovate, 3-4 × 4-5 mm, margin undulate-crenate; mid-lobe suborbicular, ca. 8 × 15 mm, apex rounded and slightly irregularly crenulate; disk with 3 entire or slightly undulate lamellae extending from base of lip to midway along disk. Column ± arcuate, 40-46 mm, apex irregularly toothed. Fl. Sep.

Cliffs along streams; 2400-2500 m. SE Xizang, NW Yunnan [Bhutan].