Glomera ambricaulis (P.Royen) J.M.H. Shaw, Alp. Fl. New Guinea 2:553 (1979)-
Type: van Balgooy 538 (holotype, L)
Growth form Epiphyte, bushy, upright or patent, slender, up to 25 cm high. Rhizome ca. 1-2 mm in diameter. Roots filiform, flexible, glabrous. Stem angular, orange to brown, glabrous, more or less branched, branches pendulous and curving upwards at tips, proliferously leafed, completely covered by leaf sheaths, internodes 0.4-1.3 cm long. Leaf linear, often falcate, green, sometimes orange brown, patent or spreading, glabrous, acicular, V-shaped in cross section, midrib flat above, prominent, crested and membranous below, margin membranous, wavy; apex obtuse; base narrowed; lamina 0.5-2.5 cm long, 0.07-0.1 cm wide; sheath narrowly cylindric, distinctly 4-ribbed, glabrous to warty in the upper parts along the ribs of the older sheaths to almost along the entire midrib of the youngest sheaths; apex without tooth, with bristled margin, bristles 0.05 cm long. Inflorescences terminal, one-flowered, when young enveloped by a spathe. Spathe obovoid, inflated in upper parts, 5-nerved, 3-nerves strongly crested ribs and on surface near apex, apex rounded, apiculate, with narrow crest-like apex, 0.43 cm long, 0.70 cm wide; floral bracts transparent, thin, broadly obovoid, 1-nerved, glabrous, 0.4 cm long, 0.4 cm wide. Flowers upright, glabrous, 0.65 cm long, with pedicels less than 0.5 mm long. Median sepal elliptic, glabrous, 3-nerved at base, 5-nerved in higher parts, margin sometimes wavy, apex rounded, cucullate, subulate-conoid, 0.5-0.55 cm long, 0.2-0.25 cm wide. Lateral sepals connate along the lower margins almost to the apex, forming a broadly ovate-orbicular lobe enveloping the lip, 9-nerved, apex unequally 2-lobed, both lobes obtuse, cucullate, subulate-conoid on outside near apex, base forming a conoid, obtuse spur enveloping the labial spur, 0.1 cm long, 0.1 cm wide. Petal oblong-elliptic or somewhat obovate, oblique, glabrous, margin often wavy, 3-nerved, apex retuse, rounded or apiculate, 0.35-0.4 cm long, 0.2-0.25 cm wide. Lip almost entirely adnate to the column, free part ovate-rhombic, indistinctly 3-lobed, 0.3 cm long,0.3-0.35 cm wide; epichile obtuse, with finely brown glands along the apical margin and on the inside in an elliptic patch near the apex; hypochile spurred; spur conoid, apex obtuse, 0.15 cm long, 0.1 cm wide. Column curved, 0.15 cm long, 0.15 cm wide; clinandrium 5-toothed; stelidia not seen. Anther cucullate, apex with folded back lobe with thickened margins, connective umbonate, 2-lobed at base, 0.07 cm long, 0.05 cm wide; pollinia 4, disk-pear-shaped, 0.05 cm long; stigma not seen; viscidium not seen. Ovary obliquely claviform, glabrous, 3-ribbed, 0.3 cm long. Capsule not seen.
Distribution - Papua New Guinea.
Habitat and Ecology - Epiphyte in upper montane forest of Mt. Wilhelm. Altitude 3000 m. Flowering in June in the wild.
Notes - 1. Flowers white with two grey dots on the tip of the lip. Floral bracts light brown, flower fragrant.
2. The epithet ambricaulis refers to the encircled stem of the species (ambire means to go round and caulis means stem in Latin).
3. Specimen observed: van Balgooy 538.