Habenaria nyikana Rchb.f. 1881 SECTION Replicatae Kranzl 1892

Plant In Situ Zimbabwe Photos by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

Common Name The Nyika Habenaria [An Island near Mozambique, not the plateau in Malawi]

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Swaziland and Transvaal South Africa in grassland, woodland and vlei margins at elevations up to 1750 meters as a giant sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial with ellipsoid densely tomentose tubers giving rise to an erect, stout, leafy throughout stem carrying 10 to 20, the lowermost reduced to a sheath, the middle 6 to 10, suberect, linear to lanceolate-linear, acute, leaves with 3 distinct longitudinal veins born along the midrib that blooms in the fall on an erect, terminal, 4 to 14" [10 to 35 cm] long, successively 8 to many-flowered inflorescence.

Synonyms Bilabrella nyikana (Rchb.f.) Szlach. & Kras-Lap 2003; Habenaria elatior Schltr. 1924; Habenaria nyikana subsp. pubipetala Summerh. 1962

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 photo good; Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1 Pope 1995; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999 drawing fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008 photos fide;

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