Genus Disa

Read more of Cultivation of Disa uniflora P.J.Bergius
Light:
Disa uniflora needs a light level of 20000-50000 lux. These plants usually meet growing in full sun, but they can also grow in conditions from total shade to full sun. The cultivation of these plants may be easier in slightly filtered or diffused light, avoiding the direct midday sun. Those that grow in a relatively bright light usually have better-colored flowers. Strong air movement should be ensured all the time.
Temperature:
It is a plant with moderate thermal requirements. The average temperature in summer is 24-26 ° C and at night 14-15 ° C, which gives a daily difference of 10-11 ° C. In winter the average day temperature is 17-18 ° C, night 7 ° C, with a daily amplitude of 10-11 ° C.
Humidity:
The Single Flowered Disa needs the humidity of 65-70% from spring to early autumn, rising to 75-80% in autumn and winter. You need pay attention to the fact that this plant does not require high humidity.
Substrate, growing media and repotting:
If Disa uniflora are grown hydroponically, they are usually planted in sand on a layer of gravel, and the containers placed in trays partially filled with slowly flowing water. Although hydroponic cultivation belongs rather to the past, some continue to grow these plants in sand and gravel, while others use other inorganic substrates, such as thick perlite or pumice, which are usually covered with a pea-sized gravel layer to prevent leaching them from the pot while watering.
Currently, however, they are usually grown in sphagnum moss or in a mixture of sphagnum moss, fibrous peat and chopped woody fern fibers, sometimes with an admixture of perlite or pumice. Some recommend a mixture of 3 parts peat moss and 1 part perlite. Others grow in pots filled with peat fibers, and the pots are put in a layer of peat. The plants are watered from the top, the peat inside and outside the pot is evenly moist but never standing in the water. The substrate with which it is the easiest to handle, especially if you are a budding breeder, is very loosely packed New Zealand sphagnum moss. Regardless of the substrate used, it should never be packed tightly around the roots, because the air must have excellent access to them, with large free spaces visible after removing the plant from the pot.
The plants should be divided and repotted every year. This is particularly important in the case of plants grown in sphagnum moss, because constant moisture causes the decomposition and fragmentation of this material during the year. In addition, peat moss decay changes the balance of trace elements, which are poisonous for orchids. When the plant initiates a floral shoot in spring, it simultaneously produces new tubers or growths that grow up and bloom the following year. Tubers can be formed at the base of an old increment or at the end of a long runner. New growths emerge after the end of flowering in late spring and early summer, when the growth that gave the flower, turns yellow and begins to die. It is during this period that the plant should be divided and replanted when the new growth is still relatively small, the substrate begins to decompose, and the dead tissues of old growth increase the risk of rotting spreading to young growth. An increase that has just finished flowering, together with the tuber and decaying and decomposing roots should be removed, while new growths planted separately to fresh substrate. Mature growth will fit in a 10-12 cm pot. New roots and tubers are very fragile and should be handled gently.
Watering:
From spring to autumn, the precipitation in the natural habitat is small, then going through the rainy season, which lasts from autumn throughout the winter. Disa uniflora should never completely dry out. The availability of water is important, but its quality is critical. High levels of mineral salts and chlorine in average tap water will kill these plants in a short time. In addition, the plants grow best when irrigated with rainwater, but you can also use distilled, deionized or reverse osmosis water. Tap water can be used here and there if the salt concentration is very low and the water does not contain chlorine. As previously stated, the plants naturally grow in acidic conditions, with a pH in the range of 5-6, and do not tolerate water with a salt content of more than 200 parts per million. For some time, the plants were grown in containers standing in water, but it was abandoned because it caused water heating and the spread of diseases.
Fertilizer:
This species will die in fertile soil, so do not use any fertilizers, especially when the plants are grown in sphagnum moss, which provides some nutrients. A layer of living moss, which usually develops on the surface of pots, produces all the nutrients needed by the plant. At most occasionally a very diluted fertilizer solution (20- or 10-fold compared to the recommendations) is used during the active plant growth period and only if they are planted in sand or other in organic medium.
Rest period:
The Disa uniflora plants consume less water in the winter and lose less by evaporation, so the amount of water can be slightly reduced, but the substrate should always be moist.
References:
This information is quoted from a Charles and Margaret Baker culture sheet, with permission from Troy Meyers This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The entire culture sheet can be obtained by subscription from Orchid Species Culture, http://orchidculture.com

Disa reticulata Bolus, J. Linn. Soc., Bot. 22: 73 (1885).
Homotypic Names:
Monadenia reticulata (Bolus) T.Durand & Schinz, Consp. Fl. Afric. 5: 112 (1894).
Description:
Plant 1/2–1 ft. high; stem stout; leaves cauline, 5–6, erect, linear-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, fleshy, 2–3 in. long, about 1/4 in. broad; scapes 1/2–1 ft. high; spikes 2 1/2–6 in. long, rather dense, many-flowered; bracts ovate-lanceolate, acute or acuminate, 1/2– 3/4 in. long; pedicels 1/3– 1/2 in. long; flowers medium-sized, yellowish, with dull red on the dorsal sepal and lip, and sometimes on the whole flower; dorsal sepal galeate, broadly elliptic-oblong, apiculate or obscurely 3-denticulate, 3 lin. long, about 2 lin. broad; spur slender, slightly curved, slightly narrowed towards the apex, 5–6 lin. long; lateral sepals ovate-oblong, subobtuse, 2 1/2–3 lin. long; petals obliquely ovate-oblong, obtuse, fleshy, about 2 1/2 lin. long; lip oblong, obtuse, somewhat fleshy, 2 1/2 lin. long; column short; anther reflexed; connective broad; rostellum erect, broader than long, tubercled on each side, with a shallow cleft between it and the short obtuse stigma.
Habitat:
Usually in moist sand in full sun at elevations of sea level to 900 meters.
Phenology:
Flowering in the late spring.
Distribution:
SW. & S. Cape Prov.
References:
Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999; A molecular phylogeny for the large African orchid genus Disa Bytebier 2006; Flora Capensis, Vol 5, Part 3, page 3, (1913) Author: (By R. A. ROLFE.); A New Phylogeny-Based Sectional Classification for the Large African Orchid Genus Disa Benny Bytebier, Dirk U. Bellstedt and H. Peter Linder Taxon Vol. 57, No. 4 (Nov., 2008), pp. 1233-1251
Images:
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Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Hermanus Botanical Society, Fernkloof. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Hermanus Botanical Society, Fernkloof. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Hermanus Botanical Society, Fernkloof. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Hermanus Botanical Society, Fernkloof. Image used with kind permission.

Read more of cultivation of Disa cornuta (L.) Sw.,
Culture:
Light:
2500-3500 fc. Light should be filtered or diffused, and plants should not be exposed to direct midday sun. La Croix & La Croix (1997) recommend light shade. Strong air movement should be provided at all times.
Temperatures:
Throughout the year, or Summer days average F (C), and nights average F (C), with a diurnal range of F (C).
Humidity:
60-65% in summer and early autumn, dropping to 50-55% from late autumn through the following spring. Averages in the habitat may be greater than indicated in the preceding climate table, however.
Water:
Rainfall in the habitat is moderate from late spring into early autumn. Amounts then drop fairly rapidly into a dry season that extends from midautumn into early spring. Cultivated plants should watered well while actively growing, but their roots should be able to dry fairly rapidly after watering. Plants should be kept dry after flowering is finished.
Fertilizer:
1/4-1/2 recommended strength, applied weekly when plants are actively growing. Many growers prefer to use a balanced fertilizer throughout the year; but others use a high-nitrogen fertilizer from spring to midsummer, then switch to one high in phosphates in late summer and autumn.
Rest period:
Winter days average 67-71F (19-22C), and nights average 36-41F (2-5C), with a diurnal range of 30-31F (17C). While plants in nature experience occasional below-freezing air temperatures, the soil temperature probably remains above freezing. Cultivated plants probably are healthier if not exposed to such extremes, but if they are, they still suffer less damage if they are dry at the time. Rainfall in the habitat is low for 5-6 months from midautum into early spring, but humidity is high enough so that the large range in temperatures results in some moisture being available from heavy dew during the dry season. Water should be greatly reduced for cultivated plants in winter. Growers recommend that plants be kept dry after flowering is completed, and then to start watering carefully when the new shoot appears. Fertilizer should be eliminated until new growth starts and heavier watering is resumed in spring.
Growing media:
La Croix & La Croix (1997) recommend that plants be grown in a well-drained terrestrial compost and that plants be repotted every year while dormant. Hawkes (1965) suggested a mix such at the one used for Cynorkis species, which he recommended be placed in rather shallow, perfectly drained pots or pans that are filled with a porous mix of shredded osmunda (probably shredded tree-fern fiber would also work), fibrous loam, gritty sand, and chopped sphagnum moss. In any event, growers recommend that Disa cornuta be repotted every year.
References:
This information is quoted from a Charles and Margaret Baker culture sheet, with permission from Troy Meyers This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. The entire culture sheet can be obtained by subscription from Orchid Species Culture, http://orchidculture.com

Disa vigilans McMurtry & T.J.Edwards, S. African J. Bot. 72: 551 (2006).
Description:
Erect terrestrial herb, 160–280 mm tall. Leaves 7–9, cauline, erect or slightly spreading, rigid, linear-lanceolate, 50–90 × 2–4 mm, with 3 main veins, margins thickened and translucent. Inflorescence lax, cylindrical, 40–75 mm long; bracts light green suffused pinkish with darker green veins, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, 11–29 × 2–3 mm, scarious at anthesis. Flowers white suffused with carmine-pink and green, blotched and speckled maroon; lateral sepals very pale green to white, blotched maroon, with green median veins, patent, oblanceolate, apiculate, 11–14 × 3.0–3.5 mm; dorsal sepal narrowly galeate, apiculate, margin weakly revolute, 10–14 × 5–7 mm, spur spring-green and blotched maroon, straight, terete, 12–16 × 0.75–1.0 mm, nectariferous; lateral petals translucent white with maroon markings along distal margin, erect, narrowly ovate, ± 5 × 3 mm, tapered, apex curved within the galea, 1.5 mm broad, basal anticose lobe small, apex pustulate-erose; lip white, distally maroon blotched, narrowly oblanceolate, slightly decurved, 10–14 × 3 mm. Anther reflexed, 2 mm long, deep blue-maroon basally and spring-green at the apex. Stigma white with a pink margin, 1.5 × 1.0 mm; rostellum as broad as the stigma, flat, lateral lobes short, raised at 45°, central lobe vestigial. Ovary obliquely patent, narrowly oblong, 12–18 × 2–3 mm.
Etymology:
The specific epithet alludes to the high vantage point in which the species grows.
Habitat:
Elizabeth and Dale Parker discovered D. vigilans on the edge of the Drakensberg Escarpment in Mpumalanga and brought it to our attention. Only two populations are known and these are separated by about a kilometer, between altitudes of 2100 and 2150 m. The species occurs on the lip of the escarpment, in well-drained North-Eastern Mountain Sourveld between Black Reef Quartzite boulders. The localities are isolated, exposed and windswept. Associated angiosperms include Berkheya echinacea (Harv.) O. Hoffm. ex Burtt Davy, Helichrysum opacum Klatt and Helichrysum mariepscopicum Hilliard (Asteraceae), Erica atherstonei Diels ex Guthrie and Bolus (Ericaceae), and Cyphia elata Harv. (Campanulaceae). The species falls within the Wolkberg Centre of Plant Endemism (Mathews et al., 1993) which is severely threatened by wide scale timber plantations.
Flowering time:
Flowering occurs between December and January.
Distribution:
Mpumalanga
References:
A new species of Disa (Orchidaceae) from Mpumalanga, South Africa, South African Journal of Botany Volume 72, Issue 4, November 2006, Pages 551-554; Bytebier, B., Bellstedt, D.U., Linder, 1983 Linder, H.P. A molecular phylogeny for the large African orchid genus Disa. Molecular Phylogeneteics and Evolution.; Taxonomic studies on the Disinae: 3. A revision of Disa Berg. excluding sect. Micranthae Lindl.; Linder, 1986 H.P. Linder Orchidaceae: notes on the Disinae for the Flora of Southern Afri Bothalia, 16 (1986), pp. 56-57 Contributions from the Bolus Herbarium, 9 (1981), pp. 1-370; Linder and Kurzweil, 1994; H.P. Linder, H. Kurzweil, The phylogeny and the classification of the Diseae (Orchidoideae: Orchidaceae) Annals of the Missouri Botanical Garden, 81 (1994), pp. 687-713; Linder and Kurzweil, 1999 H.P. Linder, H. Kurzweil Orchids of Southern Africa 90 5410 4457, AA Balkema, Rotterdam. (1999)
Images:
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Habitat/In situ	Habitat/In situ	Habitat/In situ	Habitat/In situ	Habitat/In situ	Habitat/In situ	Habitat/In situ
Photograph© Lourens Grobler. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Lourens Grobler. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Lourens Grobler. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Lourens Grobler. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Lourens Grobler. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Lourens Grobler. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Lourens Grobler. Image used with kind permission.