Habenaria chirensis Rchb.f. 1881 SECTION Replicatae Kraenzl.

Plant and Flowers in situ Photos courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz and their Website

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Common Name The Shire' Habenaria [refers to an area of Ethiopia]

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Zaire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in damp grasslands, swamps and wet places at elevations of 1100 to 2600 meters as a small to giant sized, warm growing, glabrous terrestrial with an erect, leafy throughout stem carrying 7 to 13 linear to lanceolate-linear, smaller above leaves that blooms in the late spring through early fall on an erect, [6 to 30 cm] long, 12 to many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, shorter than the ovaries floral bracts and carrying foul smelling flowers

Synonyms Bilabrella chirensis (Rchb.f.) Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2003; Habenaria limnophila Summerh.1931

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881; Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; Orchids of Kenya Stewart and Campbell 1996; Field Guide to Ethiopian Orchids Demissew, Cribb and Rasmussen 2004 drawaing ?

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