Habenaria hebes la Croix & P.J.Cribb 1993 SECTION Replicatae
Drawing © by Eleanor Catherine
Common Name The Dull Habenaria
Flower Size .5" [1.25 cm]
Found in Zambia in seasonally damp grasslands and sandy plateau grasslands at elevations around 1200 meters as a medium sized, cool growing terrestrial with ovoid tubers giving rise to a leafy stem carrying 8 to 13, lowermost 1 to 2 sheathing, the next 2 to 5, suberect, narrowly linear, the upper 5 to 6 bract-like leaves that blooms in the fall on a terminal, erect, 3.2 to 4" [8 to 10 cm] long, fairly laxly 6 to 9 flowered inflorescence with much shorter than the pedicel floral bracts and carrying green, semi-erect to semi-spreading flowers
"One of a group including H ugandensis and H macrostele which have a distinct stalk at the base of the column. It is closest to h ugandensis but differs from it in the much narrower leaves, the shorter and fewer flowered inflorescence, longer pedicel and ovary and the longer spur which is straight, and not incurved as in H ugandensis, and is more slender for most of its length but more inflated at the apex." Pope 1995
Synonyms Bilabrella hebes (la Croix & P.J.Cribb) Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2003
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Kew Bull. 48: 357 la Croix & P.J.Cribb 1993
Flora of Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1 Pope 1995 drawing fide;