The genus Eulophia in Flora Zambesiaca area (Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Mozambique, Botswana, Zambezi Region of Namibia and the Caprivi Strip)
Key to artificial groups in the genus Eulophia
1 | Saprophytic plants with no true leaves; flowering stems fleshy, yellow or pale brown lacking any tinge of green | Group A |
1a | Autotrophic oi semi-saprophytic plants; leaves may be absent or vestigial at flowering time. but then stem not fleshy; flowering stems green to purple-brown | 2 |
2 | Plants with large conical, ovoid or cylindrical pseudobulbs, mostly above ground and not covered with fibrous sheaths | Group B |
2a | Plants with corms, fleshy rhizomes or pseudobulbs which are mostly below ground and/or covered with brown fibrous sheaths | 3 |
3 | Petals suborbicular or broadly ovate or orbicular, rounded at the apex and projecting over the column, longer and much broader than the sepals and usually of a different colour | Group C |
3a | Petals and sepals similar in size, shape and colour, or sepals much longer than the petals | 4 |
4 | Sepals and petals all projecting forwards so that flower is ± bell-shaped and often nutant; all flower parts of similar colour although lip may have a dark blotch | Group D |
4a | Flowers not bell-shaped; lip usually of a different colour from sepals and petals | 5 |
5 | Sepals erect, semi-erect or spreading, longer than petals and usually narrower | Group E |
5a | Sepals and petals of similar length and width; if sepals longer, then flowers not opening wide | Group F |
Reference:
Flora Zambesiaca, Volume Eleven Part Two, London 1998