Polystachya dendrobiiflora Rchb.f. 1881 SECTION Dendrobianthe Schlechter

Inflorescence Photo by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

LATER

Common Name The Dendrobium Flower-Like Polystachya

Flower Size .65" [1.6 cm]

Found in Burundi, Congo, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe on shrubs or on the ground below them in exposed rocky areas or in montane grasslands as a terrestrial at elevations of 400 to 2150 meters as a small sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte or terrestrial with clustered, conical, yellowish, ridged pseduobulbs carrying 5 to 10, linear, grasslike, decidous leaves that blooms in the later spring on erect, arising mostly after leaf fall, to 28" [to 80 cm] long, usually less, to 20 flowered, paniculate inflorescence enveloped by papery sheaths and carrying showy flowers that are mostly resupinate and makes it unique in the genus.

Synonyms Cyrtopera flexuosa Rolfe 1894; Dendrorkis dendrobiflora (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Eulophia flexuosa (Rolfe) Gilg 1895; Eulophia tayloriana (Rendle) Rolfe 1897; Eulophia vandervekeniana Geerinck 1977; Polystachya busseana Kraenzl. 1902; Polystachya flexuosa (Rolfe) Schltr. 1903; Polystachya holochila Schltr. 1903; Polystachya kassneriana Kraenzl. 1904; Polystachya macropetala Kraenzl. 1905; Polystachya miranda Kraenzl. 1901; Polystachya tayloriana Rendle 1895

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 as P tayloriana drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 11 1983 photo; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Malawi Orchids La Croix 1983; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 2 Pope 1998; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996 photo?; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Orchid Digest Vol 71 No 3 2007 photo;

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