''Tainia trinervis'', commonly known as the ribbon orchid, is an evergreen, terrestrial plant with crowded pseudobulbs, each with a single smooth, shiny leaf and up to fourteen greenish to yellowish flowers with red or purplish stripes in the middle. It is found in tropical Southeast Asia, New Guinea and northern

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Description

''Tainia trinervis'' is an evergreen, terrestrial

herb In general use, herbs are a widely distributed and widespread group of plants, excluding vegetables and other plants consumed for macronutrients, with savory or aromatic properties that are used for flavoring and garnishing food, for medicinal ...

that has thin, crowded, dark green pseudobulbs. Each pseudobulb is long and wide and has a single smooth, shiny, dark green leaf long and wide on a stalk long. Between three and fourteen greenish white to yellowish

resupinate Resupination is derived from the Latin word ''resupinus'', meaning "bent back with the face upward" or "on the back". "Resupination" is the noun form of the adjective "resupine" which means "being upside-down, supine or facing upward". The word " ...

flowers long and wide are well-spaced along a thin flowering stem tall. The sepals are long and wide with their tips curved back. The

petal Petals are modified Leaf, leaves that surround the reproductive parts of flowers. They are often advertising coloration, brightly colored or unusually shaped to attract pollinators. All of the petals of a flower are collectively known as the ''c ...

s are a similar size to the sepals but project forwards. The labellum is long and wide and has three lobes. The middle lobe has three purple ridges and a curved tip. The side lobes curve upwards. Flowering occurs from September to November.<

Taxonomy and naming

The ribbon orchid was first formally described in 1856 by Carl Ludwig Blume who gave it the name ''Mitopetalum trinerve'' and published the description in ''Museum Botanicum Lugduno-Batavum sive stirpium Exoticarum, Novarum vel Minus Cognitarum ex Vivis aut Siccis Brevis Expositio et Descriptio''. In 1857, Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach changed the name to ''Tainia trinervis''. The

specific epithet In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...

(''trinervis'') is derived from the Latin

prefix A prefix is an affix which is placed before the Word stem, stem of a word. Adding it to the beginning of one word changes it into another word. For example, when the prefix ''un-'' is added to the word ''happy'', it creates the word ''unhappy'' ...

''tri-'' meaning three and ''nervus'' meaning "vein".

Distribution and habitat

''Tainia trinervis'' grows in rainforest close to streams in tropical far north Queensland, New Guinea and the Maluku Islands.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q15465948 trinervis Plants described in 1856 Orchids of New Guinea Orchids of Queensland