Habenaria praestans Rendle 1895 SECTION Multiparitae
Plant In Situ Zimbabwe Photos by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite
LATE
EARLY
Common Name The Outstanding Habenaria
Flower Size 1.6" [4 cm]
Found in Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in montane grasslands, forests edges, briars and brackens at elevations of 1200 to 2400 meters as a large to giant sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial with ovoid to ellipsoid tubers giving rise to a leafy stem with the largest, broadly lacneolate, 5 nerved, plicate, acute leaves near the base and decreasing in size on up the stem that blooms in the late summer and early fall on a erect, terminal, 4 to 8" [10 to 20 cm] long, densely 4 to 30 flowered inflorescence
Synonyms Habenaria ctenophora Schltr. 1915; Habenaria praestans var. umbrosa G.Will. 1982; Kryptostoma praestans (Rendle) Szlach. 1995; Kryptostoma praestans var. umbrosum (G.Will.) Szlach. & Olszewski 1998; Ochyrorchis praestans (Rendle) Szlach. 2004; Ochyrorchis praestans var. umbrosa (G.Will.) Szlach. 2004
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1 Pope 1995; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation Stewart 1997; Field Guide to the Ethiopian Orchids Demissew, Cribb & Rasmussen 2004
