Polystachya saccata (Finet) Rolfe 1918 SECTION Elasticae Kranzl.

Plant Photos by Vincent Droissart and His West African Orchid Website

LATE EARLY and again LATE

Common Name or Meaning The Saccate Polystachya [refers to the yellow cavity on the lip]

Flower Size .2" [5 mm]

Found in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Nigeria, Gabon Zaire and Zambia in savannah woodlands, riverine and lowland evergreen forests on moss tree trunks at elevations of 50 to 1100 meters as a miniature sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte with ovoid, flattened pseudobulbs carrying 4 to 5, deciduous, linear leaves that blooms in the winter after leaf fall on an arcuate, densely and shortly pubescent,, 1.6 to 4.8" [4 to 12 cm] long, 15 to 35 flowered inflorescence with ovate, qcute, thin, membraneous, delicate, glabrous floral bracts and carrying fragrant flowers.

Synonyms *Epiphora saccata Finet 1911; Epiphorella saccata (Finet) Mytnik & Szlach. 2008

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing fide; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Pope 1998; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlatch. etal 2014 as Epiphorella saccata drawing fide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------