Polystachya heckmanniana Kraenzl. 1900 SECTION Humiles

Photo by Lourens Grobler ©

Common Name Heckmann's Polystachya

Flower Size 3/8" [8.7 mm]

Found in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi in submontane evergreen forests and high rainfall woodlands on tree trunks and in rock crevasses at elevations around 1750 to 2200 meters as a mini-miniature sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte or lithophyte that forms chains of oblong, slightly bilaterally flatened, shiney pale green sometimes purple tinged pseudobulbs carrying 2 to 4, apical, elliptic, glaucous green, sometimes tinged with purple leaves that blooms in the summer on an erect, 2" [5 cm] long, 1 to 3 flowered inflorescence

Synonyms

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Epiphytic Orchids of Malawi Morris 1970; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing ok; Malawi Orchids vol 1 La Croix 1983 drawing good; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Orchids of Kenya Stewart & Campbell 1996; African Orchid in Cultivation and the Wild La Croix 1997 drawing hmm; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 1 Pope 1998

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------