Aerangis bovicornu Hermans 2021
Photo by © Johan Hermans /TYPE Drawing by Judy Stone and Kew Bull. 76: 40 J Hermans 2021
LATE 
EARLY 
Common Name The Cow Horn Aerangis
Flower Size .4" [1cm]
Found in Fianarantsoa province of Madagascar on small moss and lichen covered trees in forest remnents in the lee of a granite inselberg at elevations around 1800 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool growing epiphyte with a short woody stem enveloped by brown corrugate sheaths and bearing numerous somewhat hirsute orange-brown roots becoming grey with age and carrying 3 to 5, leathery, on a short, conduplicate petiole, ovate to elliptic, somewhat convex, emarginate at the tip, laevigate, more or less brownish-orange on the upper surface, greyish-green, punctate underneath with the central vein darker leaves that blooms in the late spring and early summer on a very short, to 1" [2.5 cm] long, rachis orange brown, almost entirely enveloped by 2 to 3 conduplicate to almost tubular bracts, 2 to 3 flowered inflorescence always with a single aborted apical bud and with thin, amplexicaul, longer than the ovary floral bracts and carrying stellate flowers that do not fully open.
"Aerangis bovicornu could be considered another local variant of Aerangis fastuosa, especially as it comes from a relatively accessible region but closer examination proves otherwise. They share the leaf shape, short rachis, shape of the perianth and the long rostellum but size of all the floral parts, spur length, column and anther shape and colour are all very different. The characteristics of the new species were found to be consistent within the local colony of about 20 plants which consisted of plants with flowers that were just opening and others that had almost wilted." Hermans 2021
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Kew Bull. 76: 40 J Hermans 2021 Photo/drawing fide
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
