Key to the area around Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Botswana
| 1 | Scape with several acute sheaths | 2 |
| Scape without sheaths | 4 | |
| 2 | Petals and lip 3-lobed, less than 8 mm long | Holothrix tridactylites |
| Petals and lip 5-11-lobed, over 10 mm long | 3 | |
| 3 | Leaves, scape and bracts hairy | Holothrix longiflora |
| Leaves, scape and bracts glabrous | Holothrix randii | |
| 4 | Petals entire | 5 |
| Petals 3-lobed | 11 | |
| 5 | Lip entire or with 2-3 lobes or teeth | 6 |
| Lip with 5-10 lobes or teeth | 7 | |
| 6 | Lip entire, or minutely 3-lobed or notched, flowers lilac | Holothrix brongniartiana |
| Lip 3-lobed, the lobes 0.5-1.2 mm long; flowers buff or straw-yellow | Holothrix villosa | |
| 7 | Petals over 10 mm long | Holothrix johnstonii |
| Petals less than 6 mm long | 8 | |
| 8 | Lip 9-13 mm long with l pair of lobes near base, the mid-lobe 3-toothed | Holothrix orthoceras |
| Lip 2.5-9.5 mm long; lobed in apical half | 9 | |
| 9 | Lip lobed to about half-way; flowers buff | Holothrix micrantha |
| Lip with short apical teeth; flowers white | 10 | |
| 10 | Ovary densely hairy | Holothrix buchananii |
| Ovary glabrous | Holothrix macowaniana | |
| 11 | Flowers densely papillose; lip 5-7 lobed | Holothrix papillosa |
| Flowers not papillose; lip 8-10 lobed | Holothrix pleistodactyla |
World Checklist of Monocotyledons. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; http://www.kew.org/wcsp/monocots/ accessed 1/16/2010
