Microcoelia exilis Lindl. 1830 Photos by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

Plant and Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Sean Ashby

To LATE TO

Common Name The Thin-Leafed Microcoelia

Flower Size 1/32" to 1/16" [1 to 2mm]

Found in Natal South Africa, Swaziland, Madagascar, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia on trees in riverine forests and coastal forests often in the smallest branches almost hanging free at elevations around 500 to 2000 meters as a miniature sized, hot to cool growing, leafless epiphyte with short stems carrying many silvery gray green roots that blooms on several [2 to 5], axillary, thin, arching, 3/4" to 5" [2 to 13 cm] long racemose many [15 to 20] flowered inflorescence occuring in nature in the fall to spring.

Synonyms Angraecum chiloschistae Rchb. f. 1847; Epidorchis exilis (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Gussonea chiloschistae (Rchb. f.) Schltr. 1918; Gussonea exilis (Lindl.) Ridl. 1885; Mystacidium exile (Lindl.) T.Durand & Schinz 1894; Rhaphidorhynchus chiloschistae (Rchb.f.) Finet 1907

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1936/1981 as Gussonea exilis; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 photo; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 3 Cribb 1989; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 2 Pope 1998; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 3 2003 photo; Angraecoid Orchids Stewart, Hermans, Campbell 2006; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008;

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------