Habenaria kyimbilae Schltr. 1915 SECTION Replicatae Kraenzl
Photo courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz
Drawing by © Margonska 2010
Common Name The Kyimbila Habenaria [A town in Tanzania]
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Zaire, Tanzania and Malawi in montane grasslands and woodlands at elevations of 1300 to 2300 meters as a giant sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with globose to ellipsoid tubers giving rise to a leafy stem carrying 6 to 11, lowermost 1 to 2, black spotted sheathing, the middle suberect, linear to lanceolate, the upper grading into bract-like leaves that blooms in the fall on an erect, 2 to 10" [5 to 25 cm] long, densely several to many flowered inflorescence.
Characterized by the curious spur being geniculate near the middle which distal part is swollen and forms a kind of blunt ampule." Szlatchecko etal 2010
Synonyms Bilabrella furcipetala (Schltr.) Szlach. & Kras 2006; Bilabrella kyimbilae (Schltr.) Szlach. & Kras-Lap. 2003; Habenaria furcipetala Schltr. 1915
References W3 Tropicos,Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 53: 515 Schlechter 1915
Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 53: 514 Schlechter 1915 as Habenaria furcipetala
Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968;
The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing fide;
Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 drawing fide;
Flora Zambesiaca Volume 11 Part one Pope 1995;
Richardiana 3: 141 Szlach. & Kras-Lap 2003 as Bilabrella kyimbilae
Richardiana 6: 197 Szlach. & Kras 2006 as Bilabrella furcipetala
Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1: 229 Szlatchecko etal 2010 as Bilabrella kyimbilae drawing fide
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