Polystachya galeata (Sw.) Rchb. f. 1863 SECTION Cultriformis [Thouars] Sprengel Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website

Another Angle Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler

Common Name The Helmut-Shaped Polystachya

Flower Size 1 1/2" [4 cm]

Found in Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zaire and Angola in lowland and submontane evergreen forests at elevations of 400 to 1000 meters in full to dappled sun as a medium sized, hot growing epiphyte with cylindrical pseudobulbs forming small clumps carrying a single, apical, oblanceolate or strap shaped, leathery leaf that blooms on an erect, unbranched, 3 to 10" [8 to 25 cm] long, several flowered inflorescence with strongly scented flowers occuring in the fall in cultivation.

Synonyms Bulbophyllum galeatum Lindl. 1830; *Dendrobium galeatum Sw. 1805; Dendrorchis galeata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Graphorchis cucullata Kuntze 1891; Polystachya babilonii Geerinck 1987; Polystachya cucullata T. Durand & Schinz 1895; Polystachya galeata var. babilonii (Geerinck) Geerinck 1992; Polystachya gilletii De Wild. 1904; Polystachya grandiflora Lindl. 1839; Polystachya macrantha Lindl. ex Hook. 1839

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as P cucullata; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 10 1970; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Australian Orchid Review Vol 72 No 2 2007 photo; Orchid Digest Vol 71 No 3 2007 photo;

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