Neottia acuminata is a species of flowering plant in the family Orchidaceae. It is native to the Himalaya and temperate East Asia. It is a leafless, holomycotrophic, rhizomatous geophyte that grows primarily in temperate regions.
Neottia acuminata is a leafless, holomycotrophic terrestrial orchid that grows 14âÂÂ30 cm tall. It has a rhizome with many fleshy roots and a glabrous peduncle 10âÂÂ25 cm long bearing 3âÂÂ5 tubular, membranous sheaths. The rachis is 4âÂÂ8 cm long and densely bears more than 20 flowers, which are usually arranged in clusters of three or four.
The flowers are small, resupinate, and yellowish brown. The dorsal sepal is narrowly lanceolate, 3âÂÂ5 mm long, one-veined, and long-acuminate at the apex; the lateral sepals are similar. The petals are narrowly lanceolate, 2âÂÂ3.5 mm long. The lip is variable in shape, usually ovate, ovate-lanceolate, or lanceolate, unlobed, and has an acuminate or obtuse apex. The column is extremely short, usually less than 0.5 mm long. The capsule is ellipsoid, about 6 mm long.
The species is native to the East Himalaya, West Himalaya, Nepal, India, China, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East. Within China, it has been recorded from Gansu, Hebei, Hubei, southern Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Sichuan, Taiwan, Tibet, and northern Yunnan.
It grows in forests and on shaded grassy slopes at elevations of 1,500âÂÂ4,100 m.
Neottia acuminata has been assessed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List. The assessment notes that the population trend is stable. Threats include agriculture, plantation forestry, livestock farming, and collecting of terrestrial plants, although the species also occurs in at least one protected area.