Satyrium pygmaeum Sond., Linnaea 19: 86 (1846).
Heterotypic Synonyms:
Satyrium pentherianum Kraenzl., Orchid. Gen. Sp. 1: 944 (1901).
Satyrium schlechteri Rolfe in W.H.Harvey & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Cap. 5(3): 168 (1912).
Description:
Plants slender, decumbent to erect, the stems (5-) 9-16 (-20) cm high. Leaves 1 -3, the lowest spreading near the ground, the upper partly erect with a gradual transition to shorter leaf-like sheaths above; the longest leaf lamina 1 -4 cm long, ovate, obtuse to subacute, transversely slightly V-shaped. Sheaths with the partly spreading free portions longer than the sheathing bases, leaving usually about half the stem exposed. Inflorescence moderately dense, about 1 -2 cm in diameter and 2-12 cm long, with (3-) 1 5-23 (-30) flowers. Perianth small, dull yellowish green tinged with pale to dark purple. Scent faint, pungent and sweetish. Bracts deflexed at anthesis, ovate-acuminate, 1,3-3,4 times the length of the 5-7 mm long ovary, glabrous. Sepals 3-4 mm long, fused with the petals and the base of the labellum for about 1/4 of their length, then abruptly deflexed with the petals. Lateral sepals broadly ovate-falcate, the odd sepal rather narrower, the petals ovate-deltate. Labellum from the side taller than broad, tapering; from the front, the aperture of the shallow galea ovate, acute, lacking an apical flap. Spurs 6-10 mm long, standing well away from the ovary. Column small, partly filling the lower half of thegalea, the curved basal portion 1 mm long. Stigma arched over the rostellum, oblong with the sides reflexed, 1 mm long. Rostellum about 1 mm long, deflexed, the glands at the side of two deltoid lateral lobes. Staminodes as pulvini almost as large as the anther sacs at the base of the rostellum.
Notes:
Colour of the sepals and petals greenish yellow with red tips, galea and spurs red on the back with greenish yellow margins, stem red. With a column resembling that of the saccate species this plant in other respects belongs to the spurred group.
Habitat:
Flowering of Satyrium pygmaeum occurs mainly in the early Summer months of October and November, rarely as early as September or as late as January. Altitudes are mostly from 500 to 1 000 m, as low as 240 m near Swellendam and at 1550 m on the Swartberg. It is a plant of wet mossy ledges on sheltered slopes and cliffs, usually south-facing, and sometimes in damp places in relict forest patches.
Distribution:
The distribution extends along the mountain chains lying inland from the S.W. Cape coast, in a rather broken range about 320 km long.
