Disa physodes Sw.1800 SECTION Monadenia

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

Common Name The Bellows-Like Disa

Flower Size 3/4" [2.2 cm]

Found in southwestern Cape Province South Africa in wet grasslands at elevations of 60 to to 1000 meters as a small to large sized, cold growing terrestrial with linear-lanceolate leaves that blooms in the spring on an erect, terminal, 10 to 24" [25 to 60 cm] long, cylidrical, subdense inflorescence

Cited by many references to be conspecific with D cernua with which it has many similarities, but I have left them separate for now as the most recent references keep them apart. The most distinguishing feature is the length of the floral spur. In D physodes it is very prominent and shorter than 1 cm, in D cernua it is longer than 1.1 cm and is less prominent. The inflorescence of D physides is plumper, more dense and more succulent and the locality of D physodes is always drier while D cernua is most often found in marshy situations.

Synonyms Monadenia physodes (Sw.) Rchb.f. 1883

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 as Monadenia physodes ; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999; The Cape Orchids Vol 2 Liltved & Johnson 2012 photos fide;

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