Description
Epiphytic herb. Roots terete, slender, pubescent, ca. 0.5‒1.0 mm thick. Rhizome inconspicuous. Stem clustered, terete, narrowly cylindric, thicker from base, 4‒7-leaved apically, covered by close-fitting sheaths, 15‒25 cm long, 0.5‒1.2 cm thick. Leaves lanceolate, acuminate, 5‒9 × 1.4‒2.0 cm. Inflorescences axillary, pubescent, borne on near the apical of the stem, 3.0‒5.5 cm long, 2 flowered; peduncle 1.3‒1.8 cm long; floral bracts yellowish green to reddish brown, fleshy, ovate-oblong, mucronate, concave, sparsely brown tomentose both surface, ca. 1.5 × 0.9 mm. Flowers white, sepal externally with brown tomentum, lip mid-lobe and calli orange to pink, long hairs yellow to white; peduncle and ovary ca. 1.5‒1.8 cm long, densely brown tomentum. Dorsal sepal oblong-lanceolate, subacute, 5 lateral sepals, ca. 1.7 × 0.5 cm; lateral sepals falcate-ovate, 5 veined, ca 1.4 × 0.8 cm, base oblique, abruptly contracted above middle, apex mucronate, mentum subglobose and obtuse; petals lanceolate, slightly oblique, acute, 3 veined, ca 1.7 × 0.8 cm; labellum obovate in outline, curved, ca. 0.6 × 0.5 cm, 3-lobed; lateral lobes suberect, oblong, ca. 0.6 × 0.3 cm, front margin little glandular hairs gradually transition to densely long hairs 1-2 mm; mid-lobe small, triangular-ovate, ca. 1.5 × 0.8 mm, apex mucronate; disk with 2 central calli and connected to a keel toward mid-lobe, keel densely long hairs, 3 rows of long hairs from base of lip extend to base of calli. Column semiterete, ca. 0.6 cm long, ventrally narrow winged; foot U-bent, ca.1.0 cm. Anther cap hemispherical, ca. 2.0 × 1.6 mm; pollinia 8, yellowish-white, compressed rectangular, posterior 4 smaller.
Phenology: Flowering from February to April.
Distribution and habitat: Cylindrolobus gaoligongensisis currently known from the northern Gaoligong Mountain, northwest Yunnan. It is a predominantly epiphytic species that grows on tree trunks in the subtropical evergreen seasonal rainforest at elevations from 1100m to 1600m.
Etymology: The new species is named after its type locality, Gaoligong Mountain.