Polystachya poikilantha Kraenzl. 1909 SECTION Cultriformis [Thouars] Sprengel

Collection sheet Photos by © W Bachman, Collection sheet by Jany Renz and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Polystachya poikilantha var. leucorhoda Photo by © Cribb and The JSTOR Website

LATER

Common Name The Rare Polystachya [refers to the lips appearance as uncooked meat]

Flower Size .44" [1.1 cm]

Found in Burundi, Rwanda, Zaire and Uganda in deep montane forests at elevations of 1800 to 2900 as a medium sized, cool to cold greowing epiphyte meters with a tufted, thin, green, densely purple spotted stem carrying a single, strap shaped, to 4.8" [12 cm] long, very tough, hard, rounded apically leaf that blooms in the later summer on a terminal, erect, slender, paniculate, 1 to 6 branched, to 7.6" 19 cm] long, , arching to pendulous, many flowered inflorescence with triangular-ovate, apiculate, amplexicaul floral bracts and carrying successively opening flowers.

Synonyms Polystachya leucorhoda Kraenzl. 1909; Polystachya poikilantha var. leucorhoda (Kraenzl.) P.J.Cribb & Podz 1979;

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 as P leucorhoda photo good; Flora of Tropical East Africa Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlach. etal 2015 drawing good; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlach. etal 2015 Polystachya poikilantha var. leucorhoda;

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