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Pterygodium leucanthum Bolus, Trans. S. African Philos. Soc. 16: 150 (1905).
Description:
A glabrous erect herb, 15-35 cm, high; stem slender subflexuous leafy ; leaves 4-5 erect spreading ovate-lanceolate, acute, membranous and veined when dry, up to 8 cm. long; raceme axly 7-10 flowered; bracts erect lanceolate acuminate, about as long as the flowers; lateral sepals spreading cymbiform acute, obscurely unidentate on the anterior margin, about 0-8 cm, long; odd sepal erect oblong, very obtuse, narrowed at base, forming with the adhering concave petals a suborbicular hood, as long as the lateral sepals; petals semi orbicular, slightly gibbous at base; lip abbreviated oblong, broader than long, bilobulate or emarginate, lobes rounded, produced above into an erect oblong fleshy appendage, which is gradually narrowed towards the apex and bifid, the lobes deflexed uncinate incurved, thickened, sub divaricate, obtuse, discolored.
Habitat:
Is endemic to the Drakensberg Mountains and Lesotho where it grows in damp montane grassland from 1300 to 2400 m.
Phenology:
Flowering from January to March.
Distribution:
E. Cape Prov. to Lesotho
References:
Orchids of Southern Africa by H. P. Linder; H. Kurzweil Published by A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam (1999); Welcome to the Pacific Bulb Society Wiki; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982
Images:
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Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.