Polystachya odorata Lindl. 1862 SECTION Polystachya

Photo by © Lourens Grobler

LATE to EARLY

Common Name The Fragrant Polystachya

Flower Size 1/4" [.65 cm]

Found in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Zaire, Angola, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania at 600 to 1350 meters as a medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte in evergreen forests and occasional lithophyte on lava boulders in riverine or rain forests with subglobose to narrowly cylindrical pseudobulbs carrying 4 to 8, oblanceolate to narrowly oblong-elliptic, rounded to subacute leaves which blooms in the late spring and early summer on an erect, paniculate, 6 to 12" [15 to 30 cm] long, many flowered, pubescent inflorescence with ovate-lanceolate, acuminate floral bracts and fragrant, pubescent flowers.

Synonyms Dendrorchis odorata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Dendrorchis usambarensis (Schltr.) Kuntze 1903; Polystachya gabonensis Summerh. 1939; Polystachya odorata subsp. gabonensis (Summerh.) Stévart 2004; Polystachya odorata subsp. trilepidis (Summerh.) Stévart 2004; Polystachya odorata var. trilepidis Summerh. 1949; Polystachya usambarensis Schltr. 1897

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Vol 3 Reichenbach 1892 drawing fide; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 photo ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 10 1970 photo good; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984 drawing good; Orchids of The Central African Republic A Provisional Checklist Kew Bulletin Vol 42 [3] 1987; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo good; African Orchids In the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997 photo ok; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlach. etal 2015 drawings good;

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