Benthamia rostrata Schltr.1924

Photo by © Gilles Grunenwald Drawing

Drawing by © Perrier

Common Name The Beaked Benthamia

Flower Size

Found in central Madagascar in rock piles and in praries at elevations of 1400 to 2300 meters as a medium to just large sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with 4 to 6 fusiform tubers giving rose to a stem bearing 2 radical leaves below the 7 to 10 lanceolate sheaths above, gradually becoming bracts above that blooms in the summer and fall on an erect, 18" to 26" [45 to 65 cm] long, rachis rigid, to 10" [25 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, very acuminate, lowermost longer than the flower floral bracts and carrying green to greenish-yellow flowers.

Very similar to B perularioides but this one differs in the 2 radical leaves, the slightly unilateral rachis, the divisions of the flower are slightly longer .16" [4 mm]; the lip is rhomboidal and heavily dilated medially and subtrilobed, the spur is filiform and longer [.2" [5 mm], and the anther is shorter and apiculate. .

Synonyms Platanthera madagascariensis Schltr. 1916

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81 drawing fide; Les Orchidees de Madagascar Bosser & Lecoufle 2015 photo fide; A la Recherche des Orchidees de Madagascar Hervouet 2018 photo fide;

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