Polystachya tenella Summerhayes 1942 SECTION Cultriformes Photo by Greg and Kerri Steenbeeke

Common Name The Very Delicate Polystachya

Flower Size 1/2" [1.25 cm]

Found in Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire at elevations of 1950 to 2750 meters in open forests as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with clustered, narrowly cylindrical pseudobulbs enveloped by 3 to 4 membraneous sheaths and carrying a single, coriaceous, linear, obtuse, cuneate below leaf that blooms in the summer and fall on an apical, erect, slender, racemose, 4.4" to 10.8" [11 to 27 cm] long, to 15 flowered inflorescence with a basal, membraneous sheath and triangular, amplexicaul bracts.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlatch. etal 2014 drawing ok

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