Habenaria anguiceps Bolus 1889 SECTION Chlorinae

Plant and Flowers in situ South Africa Photos by © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz and their Website

LATER EARLIER

Common Name The Snake Head Habenaria [perhaps refers to the dorsal sepal]

Flower Size 1/2" [1.25 cm]

Found in Cape Province, Natal and Transvaal South Africa in sour rocky grasslands at elevations of 1000 to 2500 meters as a miniature to medium sized, cold growing terrestrial with several, large, ovoid-oblong tubers giving rise to a robust, leafy stem carrying sessile, oblong-lanceolate, fleshy, cauline, acuminate leaves grading smaller towards the apex that blooms in the later spring and earlier summer on an erect, 3" [7.5 cm] long, usually densely 25 to 50 flowered inflorescence carrying sweetly fragrant flowers.

Synonyms Habenaria readei Harv. ex Rolfe 1912

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 photo ok; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999 photo fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008 photos fide; The Cape Orchids Vol 1 Liltved & Johnson 2012 photos fide

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