Disa comosa (Rchb.f.) Schltr.1901 SECTION Monadenia

Photo courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz and their Website

Common Name The Hirsute Disa

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in S & SW Cape Province on rock ledges or in crevices in damp often half-shaded locations at elevations to 2000 meters as a miniature to small sized, cold growing terrestrial with 2 to 3, basal, elliptic to rarely narrowly elliptic, semi-erect, leaves that are very different to the acute, conduplicate, cauline leaf sheaths above that blooms in the spring on an erect, 12" [30 cm] long, lax, often secund, several flowerded inflorescence.

Synonyms Disa affinis N.E.Br.1885; *Monadenia comosa Rchb.f. 1847; Monadenia rufescens Lindl.1838

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 as Monadenia comosa photo fide; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999 photo fide; A molecular phylogeny for the large African orchid genus Disa Bytebier 2006