Malaxis welwitschii (Rchb.f.) ined Photo by © Majoet and The I Naturalist Website
Another Inflorescence Photo by © Williamson
Another Drawing Drawing by © Schlechter/John Ball and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
Common Name Welwitsch's Malaxis [Austrian Botanist 1800's]
Flower Size
Found in Gulf of Guinea Islands Cameroon, Burundi, Zaire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Angola, Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Madagascar in evergreen, deciduous and gallery forests at elevations of 600 to 2100 meters as a warm to cold growing terrestrial with a creeping rhizome giving rise to fusiform pseudobulbs carrying 3 to 4, spreading, broadly ovate to oblong-ovate, acute, thin textured, plicate, petiolate base leaves that blooms in the winter through spring on an erect, terminal, 1.6 to 8" [4 to 20 cm] long, laxly 5 to 20 flowered inflorescence with triangular lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acute to acuminate, thin, glabrous floral bracts.
CAUTION!!! Majoet's photo above is listed as M cardiophylla [said to occur in the Comoros, not Madagascar] on the I Naturalist Website, but I feel that it is an exact match for this species which also occurs in the same areas where Majoet espied his species.
Synonyms Leptorkis welwitschii (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Liparis weberbaueriana Kraenzl. 1908; *Liparis welwitschii Rchb.f. 1865; Lisowskia weberbaueriana (Kraenzl.) Szlach. 1995; Lisowskia welwitschii (Rchb.f.) Marg. 2007; Malaxis atrorubra (H.Perrier) Summerh. 1953 publ. 1954; Malaxis francoisii (H.Perrier) Summerh. 1953 publ. 1954; Malaxis stolzii (Schltr.) Summerh. 1947 publ. 1948; Malaxis weberbaueriana (Kraenzl.) Summerh. 1934; Microstylis atroruber H.Perrier 1936; Microstylis francoisii H.Perrier 1936; Microstylis stolzii Schltr. 1915
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81 as Microstylis atro-ruber drawing fide; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81 as Microstylis francosii; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 as malaxis stolzii drawing/photo fide; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984 as M weberbaueriana; Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 as M weberbaueriana drawing fide; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 1 Pope 1995 as M weberbaueriana photo fide; Orchids of Kenya Stewart & Campbell 1996 as M weberbaueriana; West Central African Republic Vol 2 Szatch. etal 2012 drawing good;
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