Habenaria malacophylla Rchb.f. 1881 SECTION Pentaceras [Thou] Schlechter 1915

Plant In Situ Zimbabwe Photos by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

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Common Name The Soft-Leafed Habenaria

Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]

Found in Nigeria, Siera Leone, Burundi, Cameroon, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Rwanda, Zaire, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambiae, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Swaziland, Cape, Natal and Transvaal South Africa, Oman and Yemen in upland rainforests and former forest grasslands at elevations of 1350 to 2700 meters as a medium to giant sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial with ovoid to ellipisoid more or less tomentose tubers giving rise to an erect, slender to stout stem carrying, through the center of the stem, 10 to 18, spreading, rather soft, oblanceolate to ovate leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, many flowered, 3.2 to 13.6" [8 to 34 cm] long, racemose inflorescence

Synonyms Habenaria holstii Kraenzl. 1894; Habenaria malacophylla var. shabaensis Geerinck 1987; Habenaria polyantha Kraenzl. 1895; Habenaria pulla Schltr. 1915

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1 Pope 1995; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1997; Field Guide to the Ethiopian Orchids Demissew, Cribb & Rasmussen 2004