!Neobenthamia gracilis Rolfe 1891
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by Dale and Deni Borders
Photo by Patricia Harding
Photo by Brian A. O'Brien Copyright ©
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Common Name The Graceful Neobenthamia
Flower Size to 1" [to 2.5 cm]
Found in Tanzania as a giant sized, hot to warm growing terrestrial or lithophyte on dry exposed rock faces or on mossy ledges at altitudes of 380-2000 meters with branched, erect or straggling stems often forming keikis at the nodes and carrying many linear, distichous, unequally bilobed apically leaves that blooms on a terminal, branched or racemose, densly many flowered, to about 5" [12.5 cm] long inflorescence with fragrant flowers held in a spherical head occuring from the winter till the spring and is a hot to warm growing lithophytic or terrestrial species requiring a bark mix in a pot.
Synonyms Polystachya holtzeana Kraenzl. 1914; Polystachya neobenthamia Schlechter 1903
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing fide; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81 drawing ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 31 No 9 1962 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 10 1963; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 photo fide; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 photo fide; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 56 No 7 1987 drawing fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990 drawing/photo fide; Phylogeny and Classification of the Orchid Family Dressler 1993 photo fide; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Orchid Digest Vol 71 No 3 2007 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 5 2007 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 78 #2 2009 photo fide;
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