Habenaria harmsiana Schltr.1915 SECTION Ceratopetalae Kraenzl
Photos courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz
Drawing by © Graham Williamson
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Common Name Harms' Habenaria
Flower Size 1.6" [4 cm]
Found in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and Zambia in boggy grasslands at elevations of 650 to 1200 meters as a medium to just large sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial with an ovoid to ellipsoid, woolly tubers giving rise to a leafy erect stem carrying 7 to 12, lowermost 1 to 2 mostly sheathing, the next 4 to 6, sub-erect, lanceolate, the upper grading into bract-like leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, to 2 to 11" [5 to 28 cm] long, 2 to 25 flowered inflorescence with elliptic-lanceolate, acuminate, much shorter than the ovary floral bracts and carrying scented flowers
Similar to H holubii but differs in the peculiar petals, the front segments which are rolled up at the base and so strongly at the upper bands that a short lobe protrudes backward.
Synonyms Ceratopetalorchis harmsiana (Schltr.) Szlach., Górniak & Tukallo 2003
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 53: 511 Schlechter 1915
Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968;
The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing fide;
Flora Zambesiaca Volume 11 Part one Pope 1998;
Richardiana 3: 161 Szlach., Górniak & Tukallo 2003 as Ceratopetalorchis harmsiana
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