Habenaria jacobii Summerh. 1935 SECTION Plantagineae
Photos by © Royal Botanical Garden Plants of the World Website
Common NameFlower Size .28 to .48" [ 7 to 12 mm] long
Found in Sierra Leone and Guinea at elevations around 600 to 1000 meters as a miniature sized, warm growing terrestrial with an ellipsoid tuber giving rise to an erect, smooth, slender stem carrying 4 to 5-foliate below, linear or lanceolate-linear, sheathing at the base, acute at the apex, slightly recurved, leaves that blooms on 1 to 2 flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, acuminate, shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying erect, probably partly white, partly green flowers.
"Here is yet another West African representative of sect. Plantag- ineae, but one quite unlike the other two species from this region H. Engleriana and H. prionocraspedon . In habit H. Jacobi resembles several Indian species, e.g. H. longi- cornu and H. llongicorniculata , but is much smaller. In lip structure it approaches most closely H. xanthochila , a native of the Malay Peninsula. In that species, however, the lip segments are all quite entire instead of being shortly pectinate as in H. Jacobi. The characteristic feature of both of these species is the bilobed middle-lobe of the lip, this lobe in most members of the section being quite narrow, not lobed and with an entire margin. This is well shown in the two West African species mentioned above and in H. decorata from East Africa. H. Jacobi bears a strong resemblance to H parva , which also occurs in French Guinea.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1935: 196 Summerhayes 1935
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