Polystachya galeata (Sw.) Rchb. f. 1863 SECTION Cultriformis [Thouars] Sprengel
Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website
Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler
Common Name The Helmut-Shaped Polystachya
Flower Size 1 1/2" [4 cm]
Found in Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zaire and Angola in lowland and submontane evergreen forests at elevations of 400 to 1000 meters in full to dappled sun as a medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with cylindrical pseudobulbs forming small clumps carrying a single, apical, oblanceolate or strap shaped, leathery leaf that blooms on an erect, unbranched, 3 to 10" [8 to 25 cm] long, several flowered inflorescence with strongly scented flowers occuring in the fall in cultivation.
Synonyms Bulbophyllum galeatum Lindl. 1830; *Dendrobium galeatum Sw. 1805; Dendrorchis galeata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Graphorchis cucullata Kuntze 1891; Polystachya babilonii Geerinck 1987; Polystachya cucullata T. Durand & Schinz 1895; Polystachya galeata var. babilonii (Geerinck) Geerinck 1992; Polystachya gilletii De Wild. 1904; Polystachya grandiflora Lindl. 1839; Polystachya macrantha Lindl. ex Hook. 1839; Polystachya quinqueloba Klinge 1898
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as P cucullata; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 # 10 1963; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as P cucullata; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 10 1970; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990 drawing/photo fide; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 72 No 2 2007 photo; Orchid Digest vol 71 #3 2007photo fide; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlachetko etal 2015 drawing good
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