Polystachya dendrobiiflora Rchb.f. 1881 SECTION Dendrobianthe Schlechter
Photo by Lourens Grobler ©
Photo by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite
LATER
Common Name The Dendrobium Flower-Like Polystachya
Flower Size .65" [1.6 cm]
Found in Burundi, Congo, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe on shrubs or on the ground below them in exposed rocky areas or in montane grasslands as a terrestrial at elevations of 400 to 2150 meters as a small sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte or terrestrial with clustered, conical, yellowish, ridged pseduobulbs carrying 5 to 10, linear, grasslike, decidous leaves that blooms in the later spring on erect, arising mostly after leaf fall, to 28" [to 80 cm] long, usually less, to 20 flowered, paniculate inflorescence enveloped by papery sheaths and carrying showy flowers that are mostly resupinate and makes it unique in the genus.
Synonyms Cyrtopera flexuosa Rolfe 1894; Dendrorkis dendrobiflora (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Eulophia flexuosa (Rolfe) Gilg 1895; Eulophia tayloriana (Rendle) Rolfe 1897; Eulophia vandervekeniana Geerinck 1977; Polystachya busseana Kraenzl. 1902; Polystachya flexuosa (Rolfe) Schltr. 1903; Polystachya holochila Schltr. 1903; Polystachya kassneriana Kraenzl. 1904; Polystachya macropetala Kraenzl. 1905; Polystachya miranda Kraenzl. 1901; Polystachya tayloriana Rendle 1895
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 as P tayloriana; The Epiphytic Orchids of Malawi Morris 1970 as P tayloriana ; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 as P tayloriana drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 11 1983 photo fide; Malawi Orchids vol 1 La Croix 1983 drawing fide; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990 photo fide; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996 photo fide; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997 photo ok; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Pope 1998; Orchid Digest vol 71 #3 2007 photo fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlachetko etal 2015 as Dendrobianthe dendrobiiflora drawing fide;
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