Satyrium cristatum Sond.1846 Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler
Plant and Flowers in situ Photo by © Cameron McMaster
Common Name The Callus Satyrium
Flower Size .4" [1 cm]
Found in Angola, Lesotho, Swaziland and Cape Province, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal South Africa in moist grassy flats at elevations of 1000 to 2200 meters as a miniature to medium sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial orchid with 2 to 3, spreading, shallowly v shaped in crossection leaves abruptly transitioning into the sheathing leaves above that blooms in the summer on an erect, 1.6 to 12" [4 to 30 cm] long, successively many [8 to 85] flowered inflorescence with red, narrowly linear, acute, recurved, floral bracts and carrying non-resupinate flowers
Synonyms Satyrium pentadactylum Kraenzl. 1898
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 photo; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008 photos
Satyrium cristatum var alba
A white color version of the preceding species.
Satyrium cristatum var. longilabiatum A.V.Hall 1982
A form variation of the previous species
Synonyms Satyrium ivantalae Rchb.f. 1865
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 No 10 1995 photo; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 photo; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008;
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