Polystachya rhodoptera Rchb.f. 1858 SECTION Caulescentes Kraenzl.
Photos by Vincent Droissart and His West African Orchid Website
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Common Name or Meaning The Red Winged Polystachya [refers to the red winglike structures on the base of the lip]
Flower Size
Found in Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Zaire in dense forests on shady branches over water or as a lithophyte on rocks between seashore and mangroves at elevations of sea level to 1300 meters as a medium sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte with slender, narrowly cylindrical pseudobubls carrying 3 to 9, lanceolate to oblong, acute, suberect leaves that blooms in the spring, late summer and fall on a terminal, erect, densely pubescent, simple to 1 to 2 rather shortly branched, to 2.2" [5.5 cm] long, very densely 8 to 40 flowered inflorescence with triangular-ovate, apiculate, reflexed, glabrous floral bracts.
Synonyms Dendrorchis rhodoptera (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Polystachya carnea A.Braun 1862; Polystachya ensifolia Lindl. 1862; Polystachya subcorymbosa Kraenzl. 1926; Polystachya sulfurea A.Braun 1862; Polystachya wahisiana De Wild. 1904
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1881; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as P carnea drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 # 10 1963; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 photo/drawing fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlachetko etal 2015 drawing fide; P>--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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