Cynorkis kirkii Rolfe 1898 SECTION Parviflorae

Plant and Flowers in situ Mozambique

Photos by © Bart Wursten and The Mozambique Flora Website

Common Name or Meaning Kirk's Cynorchis [English Counsel in Zanzibar and orchid Enthusiast late 1800's early 1900's]

Flower Size .6" [1.5 cm]

Found in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique on seepage slopes, usually in grass tufts over rock at elevations of sea level to 1800 meters as a mini-miniature to medium sized, hot to cool growing terrestrial with 2 to 3, ovoid, villous tubers giving rise to an erect stem carrying a usually single, basal, pale green, ovate to elliptic, acute to apiculate, basally clasping leaves that blooms in the summer on a terminal, erect, to 2" [5 cm] long, glandular-hairy, rather closely 1 to 11 flowered inflorescence with long-acuminate, from an ovate base, glabrous, shorter than the ovary floral bracts.

Synonyms Bicornella kirkii (Rolfe) Szlach. & Kras 2006; Cynorkis morlandii Rolfe 1910; Cynorkis oblonga Schltr. 1899

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Tropical east Africa Orchidaceae Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; The Epiphytic Orchids of Malawi Morris 197o; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 #1 1986 drawing fide; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 1 Pope 1995 photo fide; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997 drawing fide;

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