Habenaria zambesina Rchb.f. 1881 SECTION Commelynifoliae KraenzlPhoto courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz and their Website

Common Name The Zambesi River Habenaria

Flower Size .8" [2 cm]

Found in Senegal, Benin, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Siera Leone, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Congo, Zaire, Burundi, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe in wet grasslands and Dambos at elevations of 600 to 1550 meters as a medium sized, warm growing terrestrial with a leafy stem carrying 8 to 9, lowest few loosely sheath-like, the rest, ovate, acute, light green, undulate margins loosely clasping basally leaves that blooms in the late spring and summer on an erect, 4.4 to 10" [11 to 25 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate acute floral bracts.

Synonyms Habenaria baoulensis A.Chev. 1920; Habenaria haullevilleana De Wild. 1903; Habenaria myriantha Kraenzl. 1903; Habenella zambesina (Rchb.f.) Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2006; Platantheroides zambesina (Rchb.f.) Szlach. 2004

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881; Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing ok; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1 Pope 1995; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996

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