Calanthe rubens, a pink preptanthe

Finally it flowered, my Calanthe rubens. Calanthe rubens was first described 1890 in “The Gardeners’ chronicle: a weekly illustrated journal of horticulture and allied subjects”, ser.3, v7, page 576 by Henry Nicholas Ridley, first scientific director in charge of the botanical gardens, Singapore:

“Among several remarkable novelties discovered by Mr. Curtis in the Langkawi Islands, lying off the west coast of the Malay Peninsula, is a small but charming Calanthe of the Vestita section, which appears to be quite undescribed, probably having been mistaken previously for Limatodes rosea. It flowers readily and well, the flowers being numerous, pretty, and lasting a long time. Plants have already been sent to England.

Calanthe rubens, Ridley, n. sp. — Pseudobulbs segmented conical, deeply grooved, 6 inches long, and 1,5 inch through at the base; silvery coloured. Leaves not yet seen. Scape nearly 2 feet, high, rising close to the bulb, graceful, nodding, woolly-pubescent, where it is not covered with sheath-leaves bright green. Sheath-leaves, about five, the lower ones closely appressed to scape, upper ones bright green, with a more developed lamina. Raceme about fourteenflowered, flowers distant, pink, smaller than in Calanthe vestita. Bracts ovate acuminate, finely pubescent green, 1 inch long, 0,25 inch across. Pedicels with the ovary 2 inches long, pubescent woolly; slender dorsal sepal minutely pubescent, lanceolate acuminate, acute mucronate. 0,75 inch long, 0,25 inch broad. Petals shorter, and more spatulate. The lateral sepals resemble the dorsal one, but have a longer mucro at the apex. Lip aduate to the column at the base; lamina horizontal; lobes four, erect. Lateral lobes oblong erect, appressed to the column face; rose-pink, blunt; isthmus fairly long. The two terminal median lobes are rounded at the apex, somewhat divergent, with a small tooth between. The spur is filiform and curved, 0,33 inch long. The whole flower is rose-pink, just the colour of Limatodes rosea, except at the base of the lip, which is darker, and there are three raised lines. The column resembles that of vestita, the clinandrum fairly deep, the rostellum bilobed, the lobes short and rounded, derlexed; the anther helmet-shaped, yellow, with a pink edge. The pollinia eight, in two packets, with a small oblong disc, al equal, and narrowly pyriform.”

It is a terrestrial preptanthe that drops it leaves before flowering and that is found in the Philippines, Borneo, Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand.