Habenaria genuflexa Rendle 1895 SECTION Replicatae Kraenzl
Photo by © Fredric Melki
Photo courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz
Drawing by © Francisco Perez-Vera
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LATE 
Common Name The Kneeling Habenaria [refers to the bent pedicel]
Flower Size
Found in Senegal, Sierra Leone, Benin, Ghana, Togo, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Gabon, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Zaire, Congo, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Tanzania, Angola and Zambia in wet or swampy grasslands at elevations of 1400 to 1800 meters as a medium to large sized, cool growing terrestrial with an ovoid to ellipsoid tuber giving rise to a leafy, erect stem carrying 7 to 11, lowermost mostly sheathing, the next 4 to 6, semi-erect to spreading, linear to lanceolate upper most bract-like leaves that blooms in the late summer on an erect, to 2 to 10.8" [5 to 27 cm] long, several to many flowered inflorescence with longer to as long as the pedicellate ovary floral bracts and carrying foul smelling flowers
This species and H schimperiana are often combined with this one taking precedence, I have left them separate pending better references and photos, but at this point I can say that H genuflex has much wider petals and is not hairy to erose margined in any parts, otherwise they are very similar. Also can be confused with H ichneumonea but H genuflexa is a more robust plant with wider leaves, larger flowers and the spur is much more strongly clavate.
Synonyms Bilabrella confusa Szlach. & Kras 2009; Bilabrella genuflexa (Rendle) Szlach. & Kras-Lap 2003; Habenaria confusa Rolfe 1898; Habenaria stenoloba Schltr. 1905
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Fl. Trop. Afr. 7: 241 Rolfe 1898 as H confusa nom. illeg.
Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 38: 1 Schlechter 1907 as H stenoloba
Kew Bull. 16: 280 Summerhayes 1962
Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968;
Orchids of the Central African Republic A Provisional Checklist Cribb & Fay 1986;
Flora Zambesiaca Volume 11 Part one Pope 1998;
Richardiana 3: 140 Szlach & Kras Lap 2003 as Bilabrella genuflexa
Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide;
Flore du Gabon Vol 36 Szlachetko etal 2004 drawing fide;
Richardiana 9: 158 Szlach. & Kras 2009 as Bilabrella confusa
Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1 Szlatchecko etal 2010 as Bilabrella genuflexa drawing fide;
Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1 Szlatchecko etal 2010 as Bilabrella genuflexa drawing fide
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