Polystachya mukandaensis De Wild. 1903 SECTION Polystachya
Photos by Murielle Simo-Droissart and Her West African Orchid Website
Common Name or Meaning The Mukanda Polystachya [An Area in Zaire]
Flower Size .2" [5 mm]
Found in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Liberia, Nigeria, Gabon, Zaire, Central African Republic, Uganda and Angola in riverine forests on trunks and larger branches at elevations around 1300 meters as a small to large sized, cool growing epiphtye with conical-cylindrical obscure pseudobulb carrying 4 to 6, suberect, oblanceolate, ligulate to linear lanceolate, acute to rounded leaves that blooms in the spring, summer and fall on a terminal, erect, much longer than the leaves, paniculate, [7.2 to 18" [18 to 45 cm] long, many flowered inflorescence enveloped by scarious sheathing bracts each branch 1.4" [3.5 cm] long, and have lanceolate, recurved, acuminate bracts.
Related to the pantropical P concreta but differs in having a lip with 2 calli, one between the side lobes and the other on the midlobe.
Synonyms Polystachya dorotheae Rendle 1913; Polystachya huyghei De Wild. 1904; Polystachya plehniana Schltr. 1905
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlach. etal 2015 drawing good;
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
