Polystachya dolichophylla Schltr. 1905 SECTION Polystachya

Photos courtesy of Photo courtesy of Guy Ramette-Vovan and his Gabon Orchids Website

Common Name or Meaning The Long-Leafed Polystachya

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, Siera Leone, Togo, Cameroon and Gabon in sedge mats and forests fringing mangrove swamps at elevations of 260 to 900 meters as a miniature to medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte and sometime terrestrial with conical to narrowly conical pseusobulbs caryying 2 to 5, narrowly oblong, obtusely bilobed apically leaves that blooms spring summer and fall on an erect, densely pubescent, to 5 branched, 4.8 to to 10" [12 to 25 cm] long, several to many flowered inflorescence arising before the leaves mature and has ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, densely pubescent floral bracts.

Synonyms Polystachya guerzorum A.Chev. 1920; Polystachya hamiltonii W.W.Sm. 1915; Polystachya oxychila Schltr. ex Kraenzl. 1926; Polystachya simoniana Kraenzl. 1926

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 10 1970 photo good; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlachetko etal 2015 drawing good;

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