Habenaria tentaculigera Rchb.f. 1867 SECTION Kryptostoma Summerhayes TYPE for the section
Photos courtesy of © Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Herbarium Jany Renz
Drawings by © Margonska 2010
Common Name The Tentacle-Carrying Habenaria
Flower Size
Found in Zaire, Rwanda, Burundi, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe in marshy grasslands, seepage areas amongst rocks and woodlands at elevations of 1000 to 2250 meters as a small to medium sized, cool to cold growing terrestrial with ovoid to ellipsoid, woolly tubers giving rise to an erect, leafy stem carrying 5 to 11, the lowest 1 to 2 sheathing, the next few suberect to spreading, lanceolate, acute, the uppermost grading into bract-like leaves that blooms in the spring and summer on an erect, 2 to 10.4" [5 to 26 cm] long, 3 to 17 flowered inflorescence.
Similar to H geerinckiana from which it differs in having ciliolate petal posterior lobes and the basal part of the spur parellel to the lip and the connective. I H geerinckiana the petals are glabrous and the basal part of the spur is perpendicular to the lip and the connective." Szlatchecko etal 2010
Synonyms Habenaria antunesiana Kraenzl. 1900; Habenaria ludens Kraenzl. 1914; Kryptostoma ludens (Kraenzl.) Szlach. 2006; Kryptostoma tentaculigerum (Rchb.f.) Geerinck 1982
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 28: 174 Kraenzlin 1900ouiiu6+- as H antunesiana
Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 51: 374 Kraenzlin 1914 as H ludens;
Bull. Misc. Inform. Kew 1934: 205 Summerhayes 1934
Flora of Tropical East Africa Part 1 Summerhayes 1968;
The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing fide;
Bull. Jard. Bot. Natl. Belg. 52: 149 Geerinck 1982 as Kryptostoma tentaculigerum
Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 as Kryptostoma tentaculigera drawing fide;
Flora Zambesiaca Volume 11 Part one Pope 1998;
Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 40 pg 2492 - 2564 Brieger 2000 as Kryptostoma tentaculigera drawing fide;
Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2002 Photo fide;
Orchidee (Hamburg) 57: 48 Szlach 2006 as Kryptostoma ludens
Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1: 200 Szlatchecko etal 2010 as Kryptostoma ludens drawing fide;
Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1: 201 Szlatchecko etal 2010 as Kryptostoma tentaculigerum drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 84 #10 2015 photo fide;
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
