Habenaria stylites Rchb.f. & S.Moore 1878
SECTION Diphyllae Kraenzl 1892
Photos by Marc Hyde, Courtesy of Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite
Common Name The Flag-Like Habenaria
Flower Size 1.3" [3.2 cm]
Found in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe in grasslands at forest edges and glade at elevations of 100 to 1600 meters as a small to medium sized, hot to cool growing terrestrial orchid with an erect stem with 2, large, adpressed to ground, opposite, ovate to reniform, fleshy, cauline leaves and smaller ones above along the stem that blooms in the winter on an erect, terminal, [3 to 16 cm] long, 3 to many flowered inflorescence carrying fragrant flowers.
Similar to H welwitschii but differs in the large, broad pair of radical leaves and larger flowers with a long spur in which it resembles the Madagascan H clarae.
Synonyms Arachnaria stylites (Rchb.f. & S.Moore) Szlach. 2003; Habenaria aequatorialis Rendle 1895; Habenaria johnsonii Rolfe 1898; Habenaria narcissiflora Kraenzl. 1901; Habenaria stylites subsp. johnsonii (Rolfe) Summerh. 1964; Habenaria stylites subsp. rhodesiaca Summerh. 1964
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* J. Bot. 16: 136 Rchb.f. & S.Moore 1878
J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 30: 391 Rendle 1895 as H aequatorialis
Fl. Trop. Afr. 7: 571 Rolfe 1898 as H johnsonii
Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 30: 282 Kraenzlin 1901 as H narcissiflora
Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1932: 188 Summerhayes 1932 as H johnsonii
Kew Bull. 17: 525 Summerhayes 1964
AOS Bulletin Vol 47 No 10 1978 as H stylites ssp rhodesica photo fide;
Kew Bull. 17: 527 Summerhayes 1964 as H stylites subsp johnsonii
Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968;
The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing hmm;
Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Part 1 Pope 1995;
Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996;
