Habenaria chirensis Rchb.f. 1881 SECTION Replicatae Kraenzl.

Plant and Flowers in situ Photos courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz and their Website

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Common Name The Shire' Habenaria [refers to an area of Ethiopia]

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in Nigeria, Cameroon, Zaire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania in damp grasslands, swamps, marshes and wet places at elevations of 1100 to 2600 meters as a small to giant sized, cool to cold growing, glabrous terrestrial with an erect, leafy throughout stem carrying 7 to 13, linear to lanceolate-linear, depressed nerved, smaller above leaves that blooms in the late spring through early fall on an erect, 2.4 to 12" [6 to 30 cm] long, spirally arranged, 12 to many flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, shorter than the ovaries floral bracts and carrying foul smelling, green with white processes and auricled flowers

Synonyms Bilabrella chirensis (Rchb.f.) Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2003; Bilabrella limpophila (Summerh.) Szlach. & Kras 2009; Habenaria limnophila Summerh.1931

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881; Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 drawing fide; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968; Orchids of Kenya Stewart and Campbell 1996; Field Guide to Ethiopian Orchids Demissew, Cribb and Rasmussen 2004 drawing ?; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1 Szlatchecko etal 2010 as Bilabrella chirensis drawing ok

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