Habenaria tetraceras Summerh. 1962 SECTION Pentaceras [Thouars] Schlechter.
Photo by Caroline Condradie and the I Naturalist Website
TYPE Drawing by Summerhayes and courtesy of JSTOR Plant Science Website
Common Name The Four Horned Habenaria
Flower Size .8" [2 cm]
Found in Zaire, Tanzania and Zambia in boggy grassland verges and wet areas in Brachystegia woodlands at elevations of 950 to 1700 meters as a medium sized, warm to cool growing terrestrial with ellipisoid, ovoid to globose tubers giving rise to an erect slender, leafy stem carrying all along the length, 11 to 16, more or less erect and adpressed to the stem, lowest 3 to 4 sheath-like, obtuse and the remainder lanceolate to broadly lanceolate, acuminate, leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, 2.4 to 6" [6 to 15 cm] long, densely 8 to 20 flowered inflorescence with lanceolate, acuminate, often longer than the flowers floral bracts.
" This species is clearly closely allied to H njamnjamica from which it differs by the leaves are less open, the inflorescence more distinct, the petals with narrower posterior partitions, the anterior partitions and the labellum with very long and very thin lateral partitions, the spur with a more inflated apex which is quite distinct. Of these the most striking consists of the long slender petal and labellum segments, which are much longer than those in H. njamnjamica. Another distinctive feature is the relation between the leaves and the inflorescence. In H. njamnjamica the leaves are somewhat spreading and there is no clearly obvious line of demarcation between the vegetative region of the stem and the inflorescence since the bracts are large and very similar to the uppermost leaves. In H. tetraceras, on the other hand, the leaves are much more erect and more or less adpressed to the stem and consequently the inflorescence, in which the leafy bracts are pushed out by the subtended flowers, is sharply delimited from the narrower vegetative region below. The present species grows in open grassy places such as dambos, marshes and swamps whereas H. njamnjamica usually occurs in open woodlands." Summerhayes 1962
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
* Kew Bull. 16: 267 Summerhayes 1962
Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae 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 ok;
Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 1: 162 Szlatchecko etal 2010 drawing fide
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