Habenaria bongensium Rchb.f. 1878 SECTION Pentaceras

Collection Sheet and Drawing by Schweinfurth

Part shade Hot Summer

Common Name The Bongo Habenaria [refers to its being found in Africa]

Flower Size .48" [1.2 cm]

Found in Senegal, Chad Benin, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon and Sudan in grasslands at elevations around 400 meters as a small to medium sized, hot growng terrestrial with 1 to 2, vertical, ellipsoid tubers giving rise to an erect, delicate, glabrous stem carrying 10, gathered in the lower part of the stem, triangular, short, shortly petiolate, lanceolate, median longest, shorter above and below, acute leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, terminal, 1.2 to 4" [3 to 10 cm] long, densely cylindrical, few to several flowered inflorescence with ovate-lanceolate acute, glabrous, shorter to slightly longer than the flowers floral bracts and carrying white to greenish white flowers.

"Related to H buettnerana and H silvatica but diffres from both by having erect leaves .8 to 1.6" [2 to 4 cm] long, and the posterior petal lobes 2 to 3 times longer than wide." Szlach etal 2010

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;

* Otia Bot. Hamburg.: 58 Rchb.f 1878

Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1: 153 Szlach etal 2010 drawing fide;

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