Polystachya albescens Ridl. 1887 SECTION Caulescentes Kranzlin

Plant and Flowers Photos by Vincent Droissart and His West African Orchid Website

Part ShadeHot WarmWinter

Common Name The Whitish Polystachya

Flower Size 3/4" [2.1 cm]

Found in Nigeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Rwanda, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Transvaal South Africa in riverine forests and high rainfall woodlands at elevations of 800 to 1850 meters as a miniature to small sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with clustered, cylindrical, green to yellow-green stems enveloped in youth by brown tubular sheaths and carrying 2 to 5, linear to strap-shaped leaves that blooms in the winter on an erect to recurved in apical half, 2 to 8" [5 to 20 cm] long, densely many flowered, racemose to paniculate inflorescence enveloped by papery sheaths.

Synonyms Polystachya albescens subsp. imbricata (Rolfe) Summerh. 1958; Polystachya albescens subsp. kraenzlinii (Rolfe) Summerh. 1958; Polystachya albescens subsp. manengouba W.Sanford 2001; Polystachya albescens subsp. musozensis (Rendle) Summerh. 1958; Polystachya albescens subsp. polyphylla (Summerh.) Stévart 2004; Polystachya albescens subsp. principensis Stévart 2000; Polystachya imbricata Rolfe 1893; Polystachya imbricata subsp. kraenzlinii (Rolfe) Summerh. 1956; Polystachya imbricata subsp. musozensis (Rendle) Summerh. 1956; Polystachya kraenzlinii Rolfe 1897; Polystachya musozensis Rendle 1905; Polystachya oligophylla Schltr. 1915

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Malawi Orchids La Croix 1983; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 2 Pope 1998; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997

Polystachya albescens subspecies imbricata Photo by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

Differs from the type with the imbricate bracted inflorescence

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing/photo ok; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008;

Polystachya albescens subspecies polyphyllaVincent Droissart and His West African Orchid Website

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