Benthamia exilis Schltr. 1924
Photo by © François Duban and the Piton Rouge Website
TYPE Drawing by © Schlechter Plant Drawing by Perrier
Common Name The Slim Benthamia
Flower Size .28" [7 mm]
Found in southcentral Madagascar on narrow leaves bushes at elevations of 1700 to 2400 meters as a miniature to small sized. cool to cold growing terrestrial with oblong, glabrous tubers giving rise to a very thin, filiform, without leaves at flowering stem with 4 to 7 distant sheaths that blooms in the summer and fall on a peduncele 5.3 to 11.2" [13 to 28 cm] long, rachis 3.2" [8 cm] long, densely arranged, many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, nearly equal to the ovary floral bracts and carrying greenish to yellowish flowers.
The variety tennuissima differs in the thinner, more elongate stem to 24" [60 cm] long, and the flowers are mostly yellow with the sepals being brown.
Synonyms Benthamia exilis var. tenuissima Schltr. 1924
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81 drawing fide; A la Recherche des Orchidees de Madagascar Hervouet 2018 photo fide;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
