Platycoryne guingangae (Rchb.f.) Rolfe in D.Oliver & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Trop. Afr. 7: 258 (1898).
Homotypic Synonyms:
Habenaria guingangae Rchb.f., Flora 48: 179 (1865).
Heterotypic Synonyms:
Habenaria poggeana Kraenzl., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 16: 207 (1893).
Platycoryne poggeana (Kraenzl.) Rolfe in D.Oliver & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Trop. Afr. 7: 258 (1898).
Description:
Tuber 1 or 2, 1-2.3 cm long, 0.5-1 cm in diameter, ovoid or ellipsoid. Stem 20-60 cm tall, erect, deliacte, glabrous. Leaves 3-9, usually spread along stem but occasionally forming a tuft at the base, 1.5-5 cm long, 4-8 mm wide, linear to narrowly lanceolate, acute, decreasing in size up the stem, the lower 1 or 2 spread, the upper erect to suberect, loosely adpressed to the stem. Inflorescence 2-4.5 cm long, 1-6(15)-flowered, dense. Flowers small, resupinate, orange. Floral bracts 10-15 mm long, ovate-lanceolate to broadly ovate, acuminate, glabrous, herbaceous. Pedicel and ovary 12-15 mm long, glabrous, erect, twisted in the lower part. Dorsal sepal 6.5-10 mm long, 4-5.5 mm wide, broadly ovate to nearly semi-orbicular, obtuse or apiculate, cochleate, glabrous, nerves branched. Petals 5.2-8.6 mm long, 1.5-2 mm wide, linear-lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate, acute, glabrous, with small basal lobule up to 2 mm long, filiform, acute. Lateral sepals 6.3-10 mm long, 2-3 mm wide, obliquely lanceolate to oblong ovate-lanceolate, subobtuse to apiculate, glabrous, nerves branched. Lip 5.5-10 mm long, rather fleshy, glabrous, distinctly tri-partite, the middle lobe the largest, 1-1.5 mm wide, ligulate to linear-lanceolate, subobtuse to acute; side lobes 1.8-2.5 mm long, 0.2 mm wide, filiform, acute, pendent. Spur 9-14 mm long, 0.7-1.3 mm in diameter, narrowly cylindrical, slightly swollen towards the apex or equals in thickness along its length, blunt to acute. Anther 3.5-5 mm tall, connective apiculate, rostellum middle lobe narrowly triangular-linear, shorter than connective, in front of it, antherophores more or less suberect, slender, stigmaphores massive, auricles prominent.
Habitat:
Permanently wet dambo, sandy grassland.
Phenology:
Flowering usually November-December, sometimes in other period of the year.
Cultivation:
Not in cultivation.
Distribution:
Cameroon, Central African Republic?, Gabon, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), Angola, Zambia. Alt. up to 1500 m.
References:
Orchidaceae of West-central Africa, vol. 1, Gdansk University Press Gdansk 2010; Summerhayes, V.S. (1958). African orchids XXV Kew Bulletin 13(1); La Croix, I. & Cribb, P.J. (1995). Orchidaceae (Part 1) Flora Zambesiaca 11(1)
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