Diaphananthe fragrantissima (Rchb.f.) Schltr. 1918 Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Common Name The Fragrant Diaphananthe

Flower Size 3/4" [2.1 cm]

Found in Burundi, Central African Republic, Congo, Gabon, Rwanda, Zaire, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Natal South Africa in woodlands and riverine forests on trunks and lower branches at elevations of 150 to 1400 meters as a medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with pendant stems enveloped in the lower half by leaf sheaths and carrying several, pendant, fleshy, linear-oblanceolate, unequally and acutely bilobed apically, dull green leaves that blooms in the summer and fall on a pendant, 8 to 24" [20 to 60 cm] long, fairly densely many flowered inflorescence with fragrant flowers held in whorls of four or in opposite pairs.

Synonyms Angraecum muansae Kraenzl. 1908; Diaphananthe falcata (De Wild.) Schltr. 1918; Diaphananthe fimbriata Schltr. 1918; Diaphananthe kirkii (Rolfe) Schltr. 1918; Diaphananthe muansae (Kraenzl.) Schltr. 1918; Epidorchis fragrantissima (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Listrostachys falcata De Wild. 1903; Listrostachys fimbriata Rolfe 1906; *Listrostachys fragrantissima Rchb.f. 1865; Listrostachys kirkii Rolfe 1897; Listrostachys muansae (Kraenzl.) Schltr. 1918; Mystacidium fragrantissimum (Rchb.f.) Benth. & Hook.f. 1883;

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of the Central African Republic - A Provisional Checklist Cribb & Fay 1987; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996; African Orchids in the wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 2 Pope 1998; Field Guide to the Ethiopian Orchids Demissew, Cribb & Rasmussen 2004; Angraecoid Orchids Stewart, Hermans and Campbell 2006