Bonatea stereophylla (Kraenzl.) Summerh. 1949 Drawing by © A. Stolz and TheKew Royal Botanical Garden Website

Common Name The Rigidly Leaved Bonatea

Flower Size

Found in Tanzania in upland grasslands at elevations of 1500 to 2100 meters as a medium to large sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with 2, turnip shaped, curved, tomentose tubers giving rise to an erect, rather stout, enveloped completly by 15 to 20 whitish, dried up sheaths and carrying broad withered at blooming leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, erect, cylindrical, to 6" [to 15 cm] long, densely 10 to 20 flowered inflorescence

"The species is distinctive on account of the small extent to which the various floral parts (lip, stigmas, petal-lobes) are united, but the structure of the various parts is that of the genus Bonatea. In particular the rostellum and stigmas are quite characteristic. The tooth in the mouth of the spur, described and commented on by Schlechter, is even larger and more prominent than in any other species of the genus. The species is similar to B. porrecta in the leaves dying away by the time the flowers are expanded." Summerhayes 1952

Synonyms Habenaria polychlamys Schltr. 1915; *Habenaria stereophylla Kraenzl. 1901;

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Kew Bull. 4: 430 Summerhayes 1949

Kew Bull. 6: 463 Summerhayes 1951 publ. 1952 Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 1 Summerhayes 1968;

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