Polystachya polychaete Kraenzl. 1893 SECTION Polychaete

Photo by © Lourens Grobler.

Common Name The Many Tufted Polystachya

Flower Size 1/2" [1.25 cm]

Found in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Siera Leone, Cameroons, Congo, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Rwanda, Zaire, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda in rainforests at elevations around 550 to 1200 meters as a medium sized, warm to cool growing epiphyte with narrowly conical, clumping pseudobulbs carrying 3 to 4, strap shaped, bright glossy green, apically bilobed leaves that blooms in the winter and spring on a terminal, to 10" [to 25 cm] long, densely many flowered inflorescence arising through a compressed spathe and carrying unpleasantly scented flowers

Synonyms Polystachya cussetii Szlach. & Olszewski 2001; Polystachya euspatha Kraenzl., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 48: 398 (1912

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 photo good; AOS Bulletin Vol 52 No 11 1983 photo good; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Orchid Digest vol 71 #3 2007 photo fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlach. etal 2015 drawing good;

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