Polystachys modesta Rchb.f. 1867 SECTION Polystachya
Photos by Murielle Simo-Droissart and Her West African Orchid Website
Plant and Flowers in situ Zimbabwe
Photos by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite
LATE
Common Name The Small Polystachya
Flower Size .4" [1cm]
Found in Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Burunda, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon, Rwanda, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Natal South Africa in open woodlands in hot dry areas at elevations of 500 to 1200 meters as a small sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte and rarely lithophyte on rocky slopes at forest edge with conical to ovoid, often ribbed, several noded pseudobulbs carrying 3 to 5 elliptic to oblanceolate, dark green edged with purple leaves that blooms in the late spring on a terminal, 8" [20 cm] long, simple to few branched, to 20 flowered inflorescence.
Synonyms Dendrorchis shirensis (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrorchis similis (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Polystachya duemmeriana Kraenzl. 1929; Polystachya kindtiana De Wild. 1903; Polystachya rigidula Rchb.f. 1867; Polystachya shirensis Rchb.f. 1881; Polystachya similis Rchb.f. 1881
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881 as P shirensis; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881 as P similis; Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1890 drawing; The Epiphytic Orchids of Malawi Morris 1970; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing good/photo ok; Malawi Orchids vol 1 La Croix 1983 drawing good; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Orchids of The Central African Republic A Provisional Checklist Kew Bulletin Vol 42 [3] 1987; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996 photo ?; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Pope 1998; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999 photo good; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlach. etal 2015 drawing good;
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