Disperis raiilabris Summerh. 1939

Collection sheet and Drawings by © Summerhayes and the Kew's Plants of the World Website

LATER

Common Name The Raia Disperis [refers to its lip being shaped like a flat-fish of the genus Raia]

Flower Size

Found in the Central African Republic in moist sandy plains at elevations around 500 to 600 meters as a miniature to just small sized, warm growing terrestrial with a narrowly ovoid tuber giving rise to an erect stem carrying a single, apical, purple-violet, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, apically more or less reflexed leaf that blooms in the later spring on an erect, 6" [15 cm] long, 1 to 4 flowered inflorescence with broadly lanceoalte, convex, acuminate, shorter thant eh ovary floral bracts and carrying subdistant, erect-patent flowers.

"This new species must be considered as belonging to the same group as D. crassicaulis, D johnstonii, D. katangensis and other similar species. It resembles most closely D. crassicaulis which agrees with it in possessing only one leaf which, however, is much larger than the small scale-like leaf of D. raiilabris. In the latter species the lip, which, owing to its resemblance in shape to a flat-fish of the genus Raia, provides the specific name, is a very interesting structure. The lamina forms a kite- shaped quadrilateral with its broadest axis about a quarter of the whole length above the base, and running out into a narrow blunt apex. The basal part is adnate to the claw in a similar manner as in D. katangensis but there is no apparent appendage. Presumably the flat apical " lamina " which is found in other species of this affinity is quite lacking. In D. crassicaulis this " lamina " is extremely small but bears a high vertical keel in its centre. It is possible that the lamina in D. raiilabris corresponds to the appendage in allied species since it is closely papillose all over except at the extreme apex, whereas in other species the appendage is the papillose part." Summerhayes 1947/8

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1939: 491 Summerhayes 1939

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