Disa cryptantha Summerh. 1964. 1838 SECTION Micranthae Photo by © Robert von Blittersdorff and The West African Plants Website

LATE

Common Name or Meaning The Hidden Disa [refers to the floral bracts that partially obscur the flowers]

Flower Size .14" [3.5 mm]

Found in Ethiopia, Burundi, Zaire, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in marshy grasslands and dambos at elevations of 1000 to 1800 meters as a medium sized, cool growing terrestrial with a sterile shoot with reddish, smaller entirely sheathing, then erect, linear, acute leaves and a fertile, stem carrying imbricate, cauline, acute to subacuminate sheathing leaves with a free apex that blooms in the late spring on a terminal, erect, .28 to .44" [.7 to 1.1 cm] long, dense 15 to 50 flwoered inflorescence with prominent, narrowly ovate, longer than and partially obscuring the flowers floral bracts.

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing/photo fide; Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 drawing fide; Flora Zambesiaca Volume 11 Orchidaceae Part one Pope 1995;

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