Nephrangis filiformis (Kraenzl.) Summerh. 1948
Photo by © Guy Chiron
Drawing by © Williamson
Drawing by © Senghas and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website
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EARLY
Common Name The Filiform Nephrangis
Flower Size .12" [3mm]
Found in Ivory Coast, Liberia, Zaire, Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia in forests and woodland trees at elevations of 600 to 2000 meters as a warm to cool growing epiphyte with a slender, usually branched, pendent, leafy distally stems enveloped by persistent leaf sheaths and carrying aciculiform, terete, usually arcuate, acute, glabrous to minutely pubescent at the base, obscurely rugulose basally leaves that blooms in the late summer and early fall on an abbreviated, .2 to .6" [.5 to 1.5 cm] long, 1 to 4 flowered inflorescence with ovate, acute, amplexicaul, scarious, floral bracts.
Easily separated from N bertauxiana by the slightly larger flowers and the longer, knee-bent spur.
"In addition to the remarkable lip-shape, which is not found elsewhere in the Angrae- coid orchids, and the absence of the basal auricles so characteristic of Tridactyle, the pollinarium is quite different from that in Tridactyle proper. In Nephrangis there are two separate short stipites attached to a relatively large viscidium, whereas in Tridactyle the single stipes, though sometimes quite deeply bilobed in the upper part, is nearly always long compared with the size of the viscidium and pollinia." Summerhayes 1948
Synonyms Angraecum filiforme (Kraenzl.) Schltr. 1905; *Listrostachys filiformis Kraenzl. 1895; Tridactyle filiformis (Kraenzl.) Schltr. 1918
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Kew Bull. 3: 303 Summerhayes 1948
Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing fide;
Die Rudolph Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 16/17/18 945-1128 Brieger 1985 drawing good/photo not = N bertauxiana;
Flora of Tropical East Africa Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 3 Cribb 1989 drawing fide;
Orchids of Kenya Stewart & Campbell 1996;
African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997;
Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Pope 1998 drawing fide;
Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide;
Angraecoid Orchids Stewart, Hermans and Campbell 2006 drawing fide
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