Polystachya affinis Lindl. 1830 SECTION Affines Kranzlin
Photos by © Lourens Grobler
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Common Name The Similar Polystachya
Flower Size 1/2" [1.2 cm]
Found in Benin, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Siera Leone, Togo, Cameroon, Congo, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Zaire, Angola and Uganda in wet evergreen forests at elevations around 50 to 1350 meters as a small sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte with round, compressed, almost coin-like, flat on substrate, single noded pseudobulb carrying 2 to 3, broadly oblanceolate to oblong, petiolate leaves that blooms in the late winter on an arching to sharply pendulous, pilose, loosely many flowered, to 16" [40 cm] long inflorescence with scented, pubescent flowers.
Because of the pendulous inflorescence this species is best hung in a suspended pot and provided high humidity, regular waterings, partial sun and warm to hot temperatures and this species will be kept happy.
Synonyms Chelystachya affinis (Lindl.) Mytnik & Szlach. 2011; Dendrorkis affinis (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrorkis bracteosa (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Polystachya bracteosa Lindl. 1840; Polystachya villosa Cogn. 1896; Polystachya villosula Schltr. 1915
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Flora of Madagascar Orchidaceae Perrier 1939/81 as P villosula; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 # 10 1963; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 #2 1969 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 11 1983 photo fide; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984 drawing fide; Orchids of The Central African Republic A Provisional Checklist Kew Bulletin Vol 42 [3] 1987; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990 photo good; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997 photo good; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Orchid Digest vol 71 #3 2007 photo fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlachetko etal 2015 as Chelystachya affinis drawing fide;
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