Dear Mr H.S. I didnt understand what you mean by the first line of your post.... to me, yes she is an orchidologist. For half of the taxonomists cant differentiate between N. aragoana and N. gammieana, but she could as she shared N. aragoana pics.
Secondly, the keys are not based on the length of the stalk though such key exists in Santapau and Kapadia. It can elongate or shortened according to the climate. Try keeping them in shade, they give different colour, different length and even different patterns on the lip. The plant shared by Neil sir is not from wild and for 100% sure it will show variation. It can be Nervilia juliana that has been reported from Maharastra. But from this pic, we cant make out if the midlobe has hairs inside (N. juliana), all the three (falcata, infundibulifolia, juliana) have somewhat rhomboidal midlobe, lip is supposed to be longer than petals in juliana which is not so in the pic, N. infundibulifolia is supposed to be deeply channeled which is somewhat evident in the pic as light green line, but yes its not so clear, neither the papillose lining is clear to confirm that it is N. falcata, moreover I dont think falcata is available in Maharastra, unless reported recently. Having a new record from Maharastra will not be a big deal though as from Chhotanagpur we had only one species reported before but during my work, I found 6 and two of which I am still not able to confirm. These were the reasons why I wasnt able to confirm about Dr Neil's plant. Nervilia is very tricky among the terrestrial ones. I have seen so many variation and so many new records and recently we have communicated a new species of Nervilia from western Himalaya, the closest ally of which is N. infundibulifolia, it took us 2 years to understand if we can really say its new. Please note that I am not saying that this is not juliana, I am just saying that we cant confirm from this image. Easiest way to confirm will be to take out the lip and find hairs on the lower end!! if they r there then you are right!! Pankaj
