Spiranthes sinensis (Pers.) Ames
- genus Spiranthes L. C. Rich.
Plants 30-40 cm tall. Rhizome, bearing fascicle roots and leaves. Leaves linear-oblong, 5-15 cm long, becoming much longer in tall grass clumps, 5-8 mm wide, fleshy, apex acute, base truncate in radicle ones and attenuate in cauline ones, with 3 main veins, veinlets reticulate. Peduncle 1-4, glabrous, 10-35 cm tall, with 2-3 sterile bracts; rachis 5-15 cm long, with few to many spirally arranged flowers; floral bracts lanceolate. Flowers white or pink; ovary pale green, curved at apex; sepals narrowly lanceolate, 4.5-5 mm long, dorsal one concave at base, lateral ones oblique and slightly gibbose at base; petals oblanceolate, 3.5-4 mm long; lip separated from column base, oblong when expanded, concave and short clawed at base, bearing 2 clavate calli at each side, erect and slightly inflexed at middle, ovate or rounded at apex, apex recurved, with crispate margins, disc hairy; column erect, clavate, 1.8-2.1 mm long; anther broadly ovoid, 0.7 mm long; pollinia ca. 1mm long; stigma orbicular, slightly convex; rostellum thin, triangular-lanceolate, lower margins toothed; viscidium narrowly oblong.
The chromosomal number of Spiranthes sinensis is 2n = 30 (Terasaka et al., 1979; Martinez, 1985; Aoyama et al., 1992; Rudyka, 1995).
Ecology and Distribution
Flowering from July to August.
Spiranthes sinensis is occurring in Siberia, China, Japan, Indochina, India, Malay Peninsula and the Philippines southward to New Zealand and Tasmania.
Molecular variations of Spiranthes sinensis Ames var. australis (R.Br.) H. Hara et Kitam. ex Kitam. was examined using the trnL-F sequence. Sequence differences in S. sinensis var. australis from Sabah, Malaysia, clearly differed from that of Japanese S. sinensis var. australis, suggesting genetic heterogeneity of Spiranthes sinensis var. australis in Asia. Molecular analysis based on the sequences of nuclear ITS1 regions indicated that there are two major groups of S. sinensis var. australis in Japan, with a geographic distribution boundary on Kyushu Island (Tsukaya, 2005).
Growing in moist grasslands, roadsides, slopes, along rivers; below 3400 m.
- Neottia sinensis Pers. (synonym)
- Neottia australis R. Br. (synonym)
- Neottia amoena M. v. Bied. (synonym)
- Spiranthes australis Lindl. (synonym)
- Spiranthes amoena (M. v. Bieb.) Spreng (synonym)
- Spiranthes australis (R. Br.) Lindl. var. suishaensis Hayata (synonym)
- Spiranthes suishaensis Schltr (synonym)
- Spiranthes sinensis var. amoena (M. v. Bieb.) H. Hara (synonym)