Disperis egregia Summerh. 1951 publ. 1952

Photo by © Bob Campbell and the Orchids of Kenya

Common Name The Two Toothed Bulbophyllum

Flower Size

Found in Kenya and Tanzania on mossy rock-faces in dense rainforests at elevations of 900 to 1050 meters as a miniature to small sized, warm growing terrestrial or lithophyte with 2 , distinctly alternate or subopposite, sessile to shortly petiollate, ovate, acute, gradually narrowing basally into the basal leaf sheath leaves that blooms in the spring on an erect, arising from narrowly ovate, leaf-like bracts, 3 flowered inflorescence with shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying horiontal flowers.

"This remarkable species seems to have no near relative in the genus. It resembles superficially D. kerstenii , but is quite different in the lip structure, the shape of the petals and the partial union of the lateral sepals. The leaves are very similar to those of many species with strictly opposite leaves, but also are like a few alternate-leaved South African species. So far I have been unable to find any species with a lip at all similar. In the present species it consists of a long slender claw bearing at the apex a curved hanging carrot-shaped fleshy appendage which is closely covered all over with rather long papillae." Summerhayes 1952

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Kew Bull. 6: 464 Summerhayes 1951 publ. 1952 Flora of Tropical East Africa Summerhayes 1968 drawing ok; The Orchids of Kenya Stewart & Campbell 1996 photo fide;

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