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Brachycorythis buchananii (Schltr.) Rolfe in D.Oliver & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Trop. Afr. 7: 570 (1898).
Homotypic Synonyms:
Platanthera buchananii Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 24: 420 (1897).
Heterotypic Synonyms:
Brachycorythis parviflora Rolfe in D.Oliver & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Trop. Afr. 7: 202 (1898).
Description:
Tuberous roots narrowly ellipsoid or fusiform. Stem 20-55 cm tall, erect, delicate, glabrous, turning black-brown in drying. Leaves up to 16, up to 4.5 cm long and 1 cm wide, lanceolate, acute, glabrous, erect to suberect, decreasing in size up the stem. Inflorescence 4-14 cm long, densely 14—25-flowered. Flowers pink, mauve or purple. Floral bracts up to 10 mm long, glabrous. Pedicel and ovary 5-8 mm long, glabrous. Dorsal sepal 4-6 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, oblong-ovate to lanceolate-elliptic, obtuse, slightly cochleate. Petals 4.7-6 mm long, 3-3.7 mm wide, semi-orbicular to obliquely orbicular-obovate, obtuse, slightly cucullate. Lateral sepals 4.5-6 mm long, 1.5-2.5 mm wide, obliquely ovate, subacute, semi-cucullate. Lip -hypochile 1.9-2.5 mm long and wide, shallowly saccate, with irregular, globular callosity in the bottom and with conical callus projecting in front of the cavity; epichile 2.4-3.5 mm long, 4-6 mm wide, transversely elliptic to reni-form, distinctly three-lobed; the middle lobe ca. 0.8-1 mm long, ligulate, subobtuse, shorter than sidelobes; sidelobes more or less ovate-rhomboid, subacute. Gynostemium 2 mm long.
Habitat:
Humid savanna, dambo, bogs, swampy grasslands, wet meadows. January, July, November.
Cultivation:
As given for the genus.
Distribution:
Nigeria, Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (Zaire), Ethiopia, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya, Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe. Alt. 500-1950 m.
References:
Orchidaceae of West-central Africa, vol. 1, Gdansk University Press Gdansk 2010; Flora of Tropical East Africa Summerhayes Orchidaceae Part 1 1968
Images:
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Photograph© Nicholas Case Wightman Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Nicholas Case Wightman Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Nicholas Case Wightman Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Nicholas Case Wightman Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Nicholas Case Wightman Image used with kind permission.