Centrostigma occultans (Welw. ex Rchb.f.) Schltr. 1915

Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler

LATE EARLY

Common Name The Hidden Centrostigma

Flower Size 1.5" [3.75 cm]

Found in Zaire, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Transvaal South Africa in marshy grasslands at elevatioms sround 2000 meteres as a medium to large sized, cool growing terrestrial with globose to almosr cylindrical, glabrous to sparsely hairy tubers giving rise to an erect, slendre to rather stout, leafy throughout, somewhat angular stem carrying 7 to 10, lowermost 1 to 2, reduced to tight sheaths and the rest erect to suberect, narrowly lanceolate to linear, acute or acuminate leaves that blooms in the late spring and early summer on an erect, 2.4 to 6.4" [6 to 16 cm] long, 3 to 10 flowered inflorescence with erect, leaf-like, lanceolate, acute, longer than the pedicel floral bracts.

Synonyms Centrostigma nyassanum Schltr. 1915; Centrostigma schlechteri (Kraenzl. ex Schltr.) Schltr. 1915; *Habenaria occultans Welw. ex Rchb.f. 1865; Habenaria schlechteri Kraenzl. ex Schltr. 1895

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; An Introduction to the South African Orchids Schelpe 1966; Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1 Pope 1995;