Habenaria occlusa Summerh. 1964
SECTION Multipartitae Kraenzl
Photo courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz
TYPE Collection sheet and Drawing
Collection Sheet and Drawing courtesy of © Kew
TYPE Drawing by © Summerhayes and Kew Bull. 17: 511 Summerhayes 1964
Common Name The Hidden? Habenaria
Flower Size .75" [1.8 cm]
Found in southwestern Tanzania in upland grasslands at elevations of 2100 to 2700 meters as a small to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with ellipsoid, tomentose tubers giving rise to an erect, leafy stem carrying 5 to 8, lowermost 1 to 2, sheathlike, the rest suberect, lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acute to obtuse, grading towards the apex to bract-like leaves that blooms in the summer? on an erect, 2.8 to 7.6" [7 to 19 cm] long, rather densely to 20 flowered inflorescence
"Closely resembles H praestans in its closely overlapping leaves, rather dense spike, short, slightly sigmoid spur and blackish color upon drying. In column structure it is much closer to H keniensis in having a comparitively narrow and relatively tall anther connective wheareas that of H praestans is very broad and low. In H occlusum the connective, which is the horseshoe form so characteristic of section Multipartitae, is bent round so much that the 2 loculi at its ends are very close to one another and the space between is very narrow. As in H keniensis the stigmatic arms are only united for a short distance tothe lateral lobes of the rostellum. The auricles are sessile and oblong or elliptical is shape." Summerhayes 1964
Synonyms Kryptostoma occlusum (Summerh.) Szlach.1995; Ochyrorchis occlusa (Summerh.) Szlach. 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Kew Bull. 17: 511 Summerhayes 1964
Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968;
Fragm. Florist. Geobot., Suppl. 3: 114 Szlach 1995 as Kryptostoma occlusum
Richardiana 4: 55 Szlach 2004 as Ochyrorchis occlusa
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