Polystachya simplex Rendle 1895 SECTION Superpositae Schlechter

Plant and Flowers in situ Zimbabwe Photo by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

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Common Name The Entire Lip Polystachya

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Rwanda, Zaire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Malawi and Zimbabwe in riverine and submontane forests at elevations of 1300 to 2350 meters as a small to medium sized, branching mass, cool to cold growing epiphyte or lithophyte with cylindric to fusiform pseudobulbs arising from the center of the previous pseudobulb and carrying on the terminal pseudobulb, elliptic, acute, wavy leaves that blooms in the fall on a branching to unbranched, 6" [15 cm] long, pubescent, densely many flowered inflorescence with narrowly lanceolate, acuminate bracts.

Synonyms Polystachya aristulifera Rendle 1905; Polystachya pachyrhiza Kraenzl. 1909

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 photo ok; Malawi Orchids vol 1 La Croix 1983 drawing good; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 23 1393 - 1456 Brieger 1990 ; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Pope 1998; Field Guide to the Ethiopian Orchids Demissew, Cribb & Rasmussen 2004 photo fide; Orchidaceae of West Central Africa Vol 2 Szlatch. etal 2014 drawing good

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