!Mystacidium capense (L. f.) Druce 1917

Photo by Tony Watkinson and the Species Orchid Society of Western Australia.

Inflorescence

Photo by © Cameron McMaster

Fragrance Full shadeCoolColdLATE Spring EARLYSummer

Common Name Cape Of Good Hope Mystacidium

Flower Size 1/2" to 1 1/4" [1.5 to 3 cm]

Found in South Africa as a miniature sized, clump forming, shade and humidity loving, cool to cold growing epiphyte occuring at elevations of sealevel to 700 meters in the dry savannahs and in evergreen forests in deep shade and has a monopodial growth habit with a short stem covered by sheathing leaf bases each carrying spreading, obovate to oblanceolate, unequally roundly or obtusely bilobed apically leaves that are articulated to the basal leaf sheath bases and all held in one plane that blooms in the late spring and summer on an axillary, pendant, 2 to 4" [5 to 10 cm] long, few to several [6 to 12] flowered, racemose inflorescence with ovate to obovate, acute or apiculate floral bracts and carrying nocturnally jasmine scented flowers.

Mount this species on cork and hang in semi-shade, give cold to warm temperatures, regular watering while in growth and with a definite drying out and a dry winter rest.

Synonyms Aeranthes filicornis (Lindl.) Rchb. f. 1864; Angraecum capense Lindl. 1830-40; *Epidendrum capense L. f. 1782; Epidorkis longicornis (Sw.) Kuntze 1891; Limodorum longicornu Sw. 1799; Mystacidium filicorne Lindley 1836; Mystacidium longicornu T. Durand & Schinz 1895

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 10 1963; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 photo good; Die Rudolph Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 16/17/18 945-1128 Brieger 1986 drawing/photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 58 No 2 1994 photo ok; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 2 2006 photo fide; Angraecoid Orchids Stewart, Hermans, Campbell 2006 photo fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008; AOS Bulletin vol 78 No 9 2009 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 79 #4 2010 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 80 #4 2011 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 76 #3 2012 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 81 #1 2012 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 #2 2017 photo fide;

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------