Habenaria pilosa Schltr.1915 SECTION Diphyllae
Photos by © Lebrun J. and Mahy G. at The Copperflora Website
Drawing by © Margonska
Common Name The Hairy Habenaria
Flower Size
Found in Zaire, Burundi, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Tanzania in Brachystegia woodlands on mossy banks of shady gullies at elevations of 700 to 1000 meters as a mini-miniature to small sized, warm growing terrestrial with ellipsoid, densely tomentose tubers giving rise to an erect, slender, long pilose stems carrying a single, basal, adpressed to the ground, broadly ovate, orbicular to reniform-orbicular, apiculate, to shortly acuminate, glabrous to few long haired above, glabrous beneath, margins densely hairy, cordate base leaf and often 1 to 2 distant sheaths above that blooms in the summer on an erect, terminal, 1 to 4.4" [2.5 to 11 cm] long, loosely 3 to 4 flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, very acute, much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying resupinate flowers that are pale green with a yellow green central part
"H pilosa has the longest spur in the section Diphyllae [subsection Pseudohemipilia - not published] and is usually 2 to 3 times longer than the pedicel." Szlatchecko etal 2010
Synonyms Habenaria pilosa var. grandiflora Geerinck 1982; Pseudohemipilia pilosa (Schltr.) Szlach. 2003
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 53: 506 Schlechter 1915
Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 1 Summerhayes 1968;
The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing fide;
Bull. Jard. Bot. Natl. Belg. 52: 146 Geerinck 1982 as Habenaria pilosa var. grandiflora
Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 drawing ok;
Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 as H pilosa var grandiflora;
Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 1 Pope 1995;
Orchidee (Hamburg) 54: 216 Szlach 2003 as Pseudohemipilia pilosa
Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1: 189 Szlatchecko etal 2010 as Pseudohemipilia pilosa drawing good
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