Habenaria subaequalis Summerh. 1962 SECTION Replicatae Kranzl 1892
Photos by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite
Drawing by ©, Mary Grierson/G V Pope
Common Name The Slightly Unequal Habenaria
Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]
Found only in Zimbabwe in moist (sub)montane grassland, usually in marshy ground among rocks at elevations of 1500 to 2180 meters as a small to just medium sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with ovoid tubers giving rise to an erect leafy stem with leathery, linear-lanceolate, folded along their length leaves held all along the stem but mainly near the base, grading smaller above into bracts that blooms in the summer on an erect, terminal, 1.6 to 3.2" [4 to 8 cm] long, 10-30 flowered, large in relation to the stem, racemose inflorescence with fragrant [lily of the valley] flowers.
Unusual in the section Replicate in having virtually all white flowers.
Synonyms Bilabrella subaequalis (Summerh.) Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2003
References W3 Tropicos,Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
*Kew Bull. 16: 297 Summerhayes 1962;
Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1: 106 Pope 1995
Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1: 108 Tab 35 Pope 1995 drawing fide;
Richardiana 3: 142 Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2003 as Bilabrella subaequalis
Terrestrial African Orchids, A select Review John S. Ball 2009 drawing fide
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