Polystachya laxiflora Lindl. 1862 SECTION Caulescentes Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Marc Flandres and His Orchid Home Page in France

Inflorescence and Plant Photo courtesy of Guy Ramette-Vovan of Gabon and his Gabon Orchids Website

MID

Common Name The Loosely Flowered Polystachya

Found in the Guinea, Siera Leone, Liberia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Congo, Zaire and Zambai in very moist evergreen gallery forests as an epiphyte at elevations around 200 meters and is a small sized, hot grower with an erect stem enveloped by brown, tubular sheaths and carrying leathery, dark green, to 3 per stem leaves that blooms in the mid spring on a apical, lax, paniculate inflorescence.

Synonyms Dendrorchis galericulata (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrorchis laxiflora (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Polystachya dixantha Rchb. f. 1882; Polystachya galericulata Rchb.f. 1881; Polystachya stricta var. laxiflora (Lindl.) Pérez-Vera 2003

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881 as P galericulata; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing/photo fide;

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