Bletilla striata Rchb.F.

Plants 18-60 cm tall. Rhizome dorsiventrally compressed, subglobose or irregularly shaped, 1-3 cm in diam. Stem 3-25 cm, stout, enclosing several long tubular sheaths, 4-6-leaved. Leaves widely spaced or clustered toward apex of stem, narrowly oblong to lanceolate-elliptic, 8-29 × 1.5-4 cm, base contracted into amplexicaul sheath, apex acuminate. Peduncle 14-34 cm, slender, usually with 1 sheathing bract; rachis flexuous, sometimes pendulous, 2-7 cm, simple or sometimes branched, 3-10-flowered; floral bracts usually deciduous at anthesis, oblong-lanceolate, 6-20 mm. Flowers erect or spreading, purplish red or pink, large; pedicel and ovary twisted, 10-24 mm. Sepals purplish red or pink, narrowly oblong, 14-30 × 4-8 mm, lateral ones slightly oblique, apex acute. Petals similar to but slightly larger than sepals, purplish red or pink, 14-32 × 4-11 mm, apex acute; lip white, tinged with purplish red, with purplish veins, obovate-elliptic, 14-28 × 10-18 mm, 3-lobed above middle; lateral lobes erect and embracing column, triangular to suborbicular, apex acute; mid-lobe square, 3-8 × 2-6 mm, margin slightly crisped, apex truncate; disk with 5 longitudinal lamellae extending from base of lip almost to apex of mid-lobe; lamellae undulate only on mid-lobe. Column subterete, 14-20 mm, slender, dilated toward apex, with narrow wings; rostellum large. Capsule to 3.4 cm. Fl. Apr-May. 2n = 32, 38, 76.

Grassy slopes in foothills, C. and S. Japan. In sandy soils amongst grassy patches on cool mountain slopes in China. Evergreen broad-leaved forests, Quercus forests, coniferous forests, grassy places, crevices; from 100-3,200 metres.

It can be grown by division of the bulbs. It can be grown by seeds.