Polystachya mauritiana Sprengel 1826 SECTION Polystachya

Photo by © Lourens Grobler.

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Common Name The Mauritius Polystachya

Flower Size .25" [7 mm]

Found in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Togo, Liberia, Nigeria, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Cameroon, Gabon, Equatorial Guinea, Central African Republic, Congo, Zaire , Rwanda, Burundi Zaire, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, Comoros, Madagascar, Reunion, Seychelles, Swaziland and Cape, Natal and Transvaal states of South Africa in warm forests at elevations of 700 to 1200 meters as a small to medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte with clustrered, conical pseduobulbs enveloped by sheaths and carrying 3 to 5, dark green, narrowly elliptic leaves that blooms in the late spring and summer on a terminal, erect, branched, 4 to 20" [10 to 50 cm] long, many flowered inflorescence carrying non-resupinate small flowers

CAUTION!!!!! Many references put this species as a synonym of P concreta but I have left it and its synonyms separate for now.

Synonyms Dendrobium polystachyum Thouars 1822; Dendrorchis jussieuana (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrorchis rufinula (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrorchis tessellata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Polystachya buchananii Rolfe 1893; Polystachya gracilis De Wild. 1903; Polystachya hypocrita Rchb.f. 1881; Polystachya jussieuana Rchb.f. 1863; Polystachya latifolia De Wild. 1903; Polystachya lehmbachiana Kraenzl. 1900; Polystachya lepidantha Kraenzl. 1926; Polystachya lettowiana Kraenzl. 1926; Polystachya nitidula Rchb.f. 1867; Polystachya praealta Kraenzl. 1905; Polystachya rufinula Rchb.f. 1879; Polystachya tessellata Lindl. 1862; Polystachya tessellata var. tricruris (Rchb.f.) Schelpe 1963; Polystachya tricruris Rchb.f. 1867; Polystachya zanguebarica Rolfe 1897

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Historie Particulier des Plantes Orchidees Recueilles Sur Trois Iles Australes d'Afrique Thouars 1822 as Dendrobium polystachys drawing fide; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881 as Polystachya rufinula; Flora of Madagascar Orchidaceae Perrier 1939/81; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 # 10 1963 as P tessellata; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 as P tesselata; The Epiphytic Orchids of Malawi Morris 1970 as P tessellata drawing ok; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 as P tesselata drawing ok; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984 as P tesselata; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997 as P tessellata photo fide; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Pope 1998 as P tesselata; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999 as P tesselata drawing ok; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 as P tesselata drawing fide; Field Guide to the orchids of Ethioia Demisseau, Cribb & Rassmussen 2004 as P tessellata photo good; Orchid Digest vol 71 #3 2007 photo fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008 photo fide; Mille et Une Mini Orchideees Roguenant 2009 photo hmm; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlach. etal 2015 as P concreta;

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