BaiJi

Bletilla striata is a terrestrial orchid of the Orchidaceae family native to China, Japan, Korea, and parts of Southeast Asia, where it inhabits grassy slopes, rocky crevices, and open woodland edges. The plant grows from clustered, flattened, somewhat conical white pseudobulbs that produce three to six lanceolate, pleated, parallel-veined leaves arising in a basal fan up to about forty centimeters tall. In late spring an erect terminal raceme bears three to ten showy bilaterally symmetrical flowers ranging from rich magenta-purple to occasionally white, each with a frilled three-lobed labellum marked with deeper purple ridges and lateral sepals and petals of similar coloration. After flowering the pseudobulbs are dug, peeled, steamed briefly, and dried; they yield a translucent, mucilaginous, highly viscous extract.