Habenaria elongata R.Br. 1810 SECTION Acuiferae
Photo by © Burleigh Park Orchids Website
Drawing by © Lewis Roberts and Wikimedia Website
Common Name The Elongate Habenaria - In Australia - The White Rein Orchid
Flower Size .8 to 1" [2 to 2.5 cm]
Found in the Lesser Sunda Islands, New Guinea and Queensland Australia at elevations of sea level to 400 meters in open woodlands and among grass on exposed coastal bluffs, headlands and islands as a large to giant sized, hot growing terrestrial with an erect stem carrying 2 to 4, basal, blue green to mid green, conduplicate, linear, acute leaves then a distant single, basally conduplicate, smaller, narrowly elliptic leaf grading to much smaller bracts above that blooms in the summer on an erect, 12 to 24" [30 to 60 cm] long, 8 to 20 flowered inflorescence and carries faintly fragrant flowers in the early evening.
"Habenaria elongata is very similar to H. elongata var. leptophylla, but its spur is completely free from the ovary. Dockrill (1969) considered H. triplonema and H. elongata as separated species based on the length of the lip lateral lobes— H. triplonema was in his opinion distinguished by equally long lobes while in H. elongata lobes are unequal. However, this character is not consistent in type specimens of H. elongata and also Brown (1810) in his very short description of H. elongata did not mention inequality of the lateral lip segments. A substantial inequality of the lateral lobes was not observed so far in any Habenaria representative therefore we think it is only artefact. Unfortunately, the type specimen of H. triplonema (Holtze 979) is apparently missing and the type material of H. elongata (Brown 5540, K) does not enable us to estimate infraspecific variation of this taxon. The original diagnosis of H. elongata is very short and without mention of the unequal length of the lateral lip lobes (Brown, 1810). The only known material of H. elongata other than the type is Brass 5702, in which we did not observe this character. We had the opportunity to examine H. triplonema only based on the illustration and description provided by Dockrill (1969)." Kolanowska etal 2021
Synonyms Habenaria millari F.M.Bailey 1891; Habenaria mutica Span. 1841; Pecteilis elongata (R.Br.) M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones 2018
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Prodr. Fl. Nov. Holland.: 313 R Br 1810
Linnaea 15: 477 Span. 1841 as H mutica;
Dept. Agric. Brisbane Bot. Bull. 3: 18 F.M.Bailey 1891 as H millarii
Orchids of Papua New Guinea Millar 1999 photo fide;
Native Orchids of Australia Jones 2006 photo fide;
Checklist of Papusian Orchids Ormerod 2017;
Austral. Orchid Rev. 83(6): 51 M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones 2018 as Pectilis elongata;
Austral. Orchid Rev. 83(6): 52 M.A.Clem. & D.L.Jones 2018 as Pectilis mutica
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