Polystachya reflexa Lindl. 1841 SECTION Elasticae Kraenzl.

Photo by © G Smith and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Common Name The Refexed Polystachya [Refers to the lips bent back position]

Flower Size .56" [1.4 cm]

Found in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia and Ghana in scrub vegetation of granite mounds at forest edges and on inaccessible cliffs in beds of mosses and lichens at elevations of 500 to 1700 meters as a miniature to just small sized, large mat forming, warm to cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte with close set, narrowly conical pseudobulbs carrying 4 to 6, obloanceolate, acute leaves that are not present at blooming, occuring in the spring on an erect, 2 to 6.8" [5 to 17 cm] long overall, peduncle provided with 5 to 7 loose, membraneous acute sheaths, rachis short to 1.5" [3.75 cm] long, , pubescent, densely many flowered inflorescence with very small, triangular, obtuse to breifly apiculate floral bracts and carrying glabrous flowers.

Synonyms Dendrorkis reflexa (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Epiphorella reflexa (Lindl.) Mytnik & Szlach. 2008; Polystachya liberica Rolfe 1908; Polystachya smytheana Rolfe 1908

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 # 10 1963; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide;

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