Habenaria petitiana T.Durand & Schinz

A terrestrial herb 1–10 dm. high.. Tubers globose or ellipsoid, 1–2.5 cm. long, 7–13 mm. in diameter, ± woolly.. Stem erect, leafy along its whole length.. Leaves 7–14, the lowest 2 or 3 sheath-like, most of the rest ovate or broadly lanceolate, acute, base clasping the stem, the largest 3–8.5 cm. long, 1.5–4.3 cm. broad, the uppermost often much smaller, bract-like.. Inflorescence slender, up to 28 cm. long but very rarely exceeding 20 cm., densely or rather densely many-flowered.. Bracts lanceolate, acuminate, the lower ones often longer than the flowers.. Flowers suberect or curved outwards, green or yellow-green, glabrous; ovary almost sessile, 4–6 mm. long.. Dorsal sepal ovate or lanceolate-ovate, acute, 2.5–4 mm. long; laterals spreading, oblong or oblong-elliptical, obtuse or subacute, a little longer but narrower than the dorsal sepal.. Petals obliquely and curved oblong, obtuse, 2–3.5 mm. long, 1–1.5 mm. broad.. Lip broadly cuneate or almost fan-shaped, 2.5–4 mm. long and nearly as broad, 3-lobed in the apical half; lobes ± divergent triangular or ligulate-triangular, the laterals often rather longer than the middle lobe, the latter with a distinct median keel.. Spur almost globose, just exceeding 1 mm. in length.. Anther 1–1.5 mm. high, loculi erect, parallel, canals absent.. Stigmas ellipsoid from a narrow base, scarcely 1 mm. long.. Rostellum middle lobe folded and hooded, ± 0.4 mm. long.. Fig. 11, p. 57.