Disa fragrans Schltr. 1895 SUBGENUS Micranthae

Flower Closeup

Plant in situ Zimbabwe Photos by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

Fragrance Part Sun Cold LATERSummer EARLIERfall

Common Name The Fragrant Disa

Flower Size 1/4" [8 mm]

Found in Rwanda, Zaire, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Natal, Orange Free State and Transvaal South Africa as well as Lesotho in grassy glades at forest edge and in stony rocky areas on hilltops at elevations of 2100 to 2800 meters as a miniature to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial orchid with a short, robust stem carrying 2, narrowly elliptic leaves, and imbricate cauline leaves that gradually decrease in size towards the apex and blooms in the later summer and earlier fall on an erect, dense, 10 to 150 flowered, racemose inflorescence with strongly fragrant flowers

Synonyms Disa deckenii Rchb.f. 1881; Disa fragrans subsp. deckenii (Rchb.f.) H.P.Linder 1981; Disa kilimanjarica Rendle 1895; Disa leucostachys Kraenzl. 1901; Monadenia junodiana Kraenzl. 1929

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881 as D deckenii; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 as D deckenii; Flora Of Tropical East Africa Vol 1 Summerhayes 1968 as D deckenii; Flora Of Tropical East Africa Vol 1 Summerhayes 1968 as D leucostachys; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 5 257- 320 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1974 as D deckenii; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 9 1979 photo good; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 photo fide; Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 AS d DECKENII drawing fide; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 1 Pope 1995; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996 photo as D fragrans var deckenii ok; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999 drawing/photo fide; Field Guide to the Ethiopian Orchids Demissew, Cribb & Rasmussen 2004 as D deckenii photo ok; A molecular phylogeny for the large African orchid genus Disa Bytebier 2006; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008 photos fide; Terrestrial African Orchids, A select Review John S. Ball 2009 drawing fide

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