Ponerorchis chusua (D.Don) Soó

Plants (5-)8-45 cm tall. Tubers oblong or globose, 10-20 × ca. 10 mm. Stem (2.5-)5-23 cm, with 1-3 tubular sheaths at base, (1 or)2-5-leaved. Leaves cauline, alternate, widely spaced, green, lacking purple spots, linear, oblong-lanceolate, or elliptic, 3-15 × 0.2-3 cm, becoming smaller and bractlike above, glabrous, apex acute or acuminate. Inflorescence erect or slightly curved, 2-20 cm, glabrous; rachis 1.5-9 cm, (1 or)2-20-flowered; floral bracts lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, 7-22 mm, lower ones foliaceous and exceeding flower, apex acuminate. Flowers often secund, pink, purplish red, or purple, medium-sized; ovary fusiform, 7-15 mm including pedicel, glabrous. Dorsal sepal erect, oblong or ovate-oblong, concave, 5-7(-8) × 2.5-4(-5) mm, 3-veined, apex subobtuse or acute; lateral sepals reflexed, ovate-lanceolate, oblique, 6-8(-9) × 3-5 mm, 3-veined, apex subobtuse to acuminate. Petals erect, forming a hood with dorsal sepal, narrowly ovate, broadly ovate, or narrowly ovate-oblong, oblique, 5-6(-7) × 3-4 mm, glabrous, 3-veined, apex obtuse; lip broadly oblong to obovate, 7-12(-15) × 7-13(-17) mm, spurred, 3-or 4-lobed above middle, margin crenulate, disk tinged white at base, marked with deep purple blotches; lobes variable; lateral lobes broadly oblong to subtriangular, falcate, 2-3(-5) × 2.5-5(-7) mm, apex obtuse or acute; mid-lobe oblong, square, or ovate, 1.8-3.5(-5) × 2-3.5(-6) mm, usually longer than broad, apex truncate to obtuse-rounded, subentire to distinctly notched and forming 2 lobules, often apiculate between 2 lobules; spur slightly pendulous or horizontal, sometimes distinctly curved upward toward apex, cylindric to cylindric-conic, often slightly attenuate, 7-15(-19) mm, usually slightly longer than ovary. Fl. Jun-Aug.

It is a temperate plant. In Nepal it grows between 2,400-4,900 m above sea level.

The root tubers are roasted and eaten.