Didymoplexis verrucosa J.Stewart & Hennessy, Amer. Orchid Soc. Bull. 49: 841 (1980).
Description:
Herb, holomycotrophic, glabrous, leafless. Tuber elongate, moniliform, branching, up to 90 mm long, 20 mm in diam. Scape erect, 10-15 cm tall, bearing two sheathing cataphylls at the base, 8- to 12-flowered; bracts spreading, ovate to triangular-ovate, 1-2 mm long. Flowers non-resupinate, white, 1013 mm across; pedicel and ovary 10-16 mm long; sepals and petals connate into a short tube at the base; dorsal sepal oblong, obtuse or rounded at the tip, 6-8 x 3-4 mm, connate for 1-2 mm with the petals; lateral sepal similar but connate for 1 mm or less to the dorsal sepal; petals oblong, obtuse or rounded, 5-6 x 2-4 mm; lip erect-spreading, free, shortly clawed, transversely triangular, 3-lobed at apex, 5-6 x 8-9 mm; callus of two lines of small warts from base to tip, with a fleshy yellow ligule on the claw; column straight, 4 mm long. Capsule narrowly ovoid-elliptic, 20 mm long, 10 mm in diam., pedicel extending erect to 100-200 mm as the capsule develops.
Habitat:
In coastal forest on sand in South Africa and in forest on tsingy (eroded limestone) in Madagascar; 0-100 m.
Distribution:
KwaZulu-Natal, W. Madagascar