Genus Corycium

Corycium ingeanum E.G.H.Oliv., S. African J. Bot. 52: 256 (1986).
Homotypic Names:
Pterygodium ingeanum (E.G.H.Oliv.) J.C.Manning & Goldblatt, Strelitzia 29: 812 (2012).
Description:
An erect glabrous herb up to 200 mm tall with a fairly stout leafy stem. Leaves 7-8, erect - spreading, 25 - 100 x 1421 mm, elongate, lanceolate, acuminate, broadly sheathing at the base, canaliculate, the upper leaves gradually smaller and appressed. Inflorescence loosely to fairly densely 23 - 33-flowered, c. 80 mm long and 25-30 mm across; flowers erect - spreading, but facing slightly downwards; bracts erect 12-14 x 11 -12 mm, very broadly ovate, subacute, minutely papillose ciliate, pale greenish-cream with red margins and membraneous apex, distinctly veined, becoming dried and brown. Lateral sepals anticous, completely united (or slightly free) into a broadly elliptic or suborbicular deflexed spreading blade 7-8x6 mm, emarginate, margins involute, membraneous, brownish purple-tipped. Odd sepal dorsal, oblong from a narrow base, deeply canaliculate, 9x4 mm but appearing only 2 mm broad, arched forwards over the column, obtuse with an incurved apex, the margins folded inwards over and adhering to the petals, yellow soon turning membraneous brown. Petals c. 10 mm long and 8 mm broad, at first forming an ovate to broadly ovate mouth to the flower with a narrow apical portion, soon becoming broadly oblate, yellow with reddish to black spreading tips, each petal forming a short pouch • posteriorly. Lip unguiculate, ascending and adnate to the column, limb 3 X 1,5 mm, fleshy and bright green, arched forwards and downwards beyond the mouth of the flower in a semicircular arc terminating in a much thinner bilobed cuneate blade 3,5-4 x 5 mm, lobes 22,5 mm long spreading laterally, obtuse fimbriate, sometimes with a very small third lobe between them. Lip appendage 5-6 mm long, fleshy bilobed, horn-like; lobes subulate, arched backwards inside the flower and slightly divergent, each ending in a pouch of the petals. Rostellum arms short, 1,5 mm long, with the pollinia parallel to the axis of the flower and close to the column; stigmatic surfaces large, ellipsoid cushionlike, posterior to the column and perpendicular to the axis of the inflorescence; an additional small tongue-like appendage c. 1 mm long arising adaxially from the column between and just above the stigmatic cushions and just appearing in the joint of the two lip appendages.
Etymology:
The species is named after my wife with whom I collected the species and who made the accompanying drawings.
Habitat:
This species is known only from the northern end of the escarpment north-west of Nieuwoudtville where it appears to be confined to sandy clayey soil in open ground between small shrubs of the renosterbos, Elytropappus rhinocerotis (L.f.) Less., and a Lycium sp. Here it grows in arid conditions just beyond the northern extension of the fynbos vegetation of the escarpment where the rainfall, up to 400 mm per annum, occurs mainly during the winter months, April to September.
Phenology:
Flowering in September.
Distribution:
Cape Prov. (Bokkeveld Plateau)
References:
Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999; The Cape Orchids Vol 2 Liltved & Johnson 2012; A new species of orchid from the north-western Cape by E.G.H. Oliver, Botanical Research Institute, Department of Agriculture and Water Supply, Pretoria; POWO (2022). "Plants of the World Online. Facilitated by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet; http://www.plantsoftheworldonline.org/ Retrieved 28 November 2022."
Images:
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Corycium alticola Parkman & Schelpe, Contr. Bolus Herb. 10: 157 (1982).
Description:
Plants robust, to c. 400 mm tall, black when dried; leaves suberect, spreading, lanceolate, acuminate, 55-200 x 28 mm. Inflorescences dense, numerous-flowered; bracts overtopping flowers, lanceolate, acuminate, to c. 28 x 10 mm. Flowers c. 20 x 7-10 mm, sepals white turning black, petals pale green, lip pale maroon. Median sepal broadly ovate, subacute to obtuse, 8 x 4-6 mm; lateral sepals deflexed, concave, suborbicular, connate to half their length, 6-8 x 4-5 mm. Petals broadly lanceolate, falcate, as long as the median sepal. Lip rotund-oblong, emarginate, 5-6 x 4-5 mm; appendage shield-like, c. 5 mm tall, with 2 deltate, divaricate, acute apical lobes 8 mm long.
Habitat:
Very local in KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Lesotho, known from only a few localities; in damp grassland from 1950 to 2400 m.
Phenology:
Flowering in February.
Distribution:
S. Africa
References:
Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982
Images:
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Habitat/ In Situ	Habitat/ In Situ	Habitat/ In Situ	Habitat/ In Situ

Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.

Corycium bicolorum (Thunb.) Sw., Kongl. Vetensk. Acad. Nya Handl. 21: 222 (1800).
Homotypic Synonyms:
Ophrys bicolor Thunb., Prodr. Pl. Cap.: 2 (1794).
Pterygodium bicolorum (Thunb.) Schltr., Bull. Herb. Boissier 6: 851 (1898).
Heterotypic Synonyms:
Pterygodium mundii Schltr., Ann. Transvaal Mus. 10: 251 (1924).
Description:
A glabrous, often robust, herb, 15-38 cm. high; stem erect, leafy below; leaves 6-8, linear-lanceolate acuminate nerved. sometimes waved, 5-15 cm. long; spike cylindrical densely many-fl.,1,8-2,2 cm. in diameter, bracts shorter than the flowers, flowers about 4 mm, long; side sepals anticous, connate into an ovate-rotundate emarginate spreading piece; odd sepal linearoblong obtuse; petals obliquely semi-sack-shaped, falcately acute; limb of the lip small obovate emarginate, sessile on the keel of the appendage, appendage fleshy, rising free from the column on a straight erect keel, then dilated above ovate in outline and somewhat cowl-shaped, convex above, obtuse and eared at base; cells of the anther anticous erect; stigmas 2, situate in front on each side on the apices of a horse-shoe-shaped cushion.
Note:
Colour of the flowers clear sulphur-yellow.
Habitat:
In fynbos at elevations of near sea level to 600 meters.
Distribution:
SW. Cape Prov.
References:
The Cape Orchids Vol 2 Liltved & Johnson 2012; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999; The Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Schelpe, Linder and Hall 1982; The phylogeny and evolution of the Pterygodium—Corycium complex (Coryciinae, Orchidaceae) H. Kurzweil, Plant Systematics and Evolution, Vol. 175, No. 3/4 (1991), pp. 161-223; Flora Capensis, Vol 5, Part 3, page 3, (1913) Author: (By R. A. ROLFE.)
Images:
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Habitat/In situ	Habitat/In situ

Photograph © P. Linder. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph © P. Linder. Image used with kind permission.

Corycium bifidum Sond., Linnaea 19: 111 (1846).
Homotypic Synonyms:
Pterygodium bifidum (Sond.) Schltr., Bull. Herb. Boissier 6: 865 (1898).
Heterotypic Synonyms:
Corycium ligulatum Rchb.f., Linnaea 19: 375 (1846).
Description:
Plant 1/2–1 1/2 ft. high; leaves distichous, narrow and long-acuminate from a broad sheathing base, 4 lin. long, the upper shorter and sheath-like; scapes 1/2–1 1/2 ft. high; spikes cylindric, 4 lin. long, very dense, many-flowered; bracts ovate, acute, shorter than the flower; pedicels about 3 lin. long; flowers rather small, white; dorsal sepal elliptic-oblong, with obtuse incurved apex, 2 1/4 lin. long; lateral sepals united to the middle into a broadly suborbicular concave limb, 2 1/2 lin. long, lobes obtuse; petals obliquely ovate, very obtuse, conduplicately folded, saccate at the base, 2 1/2 lin. long; lip broadly unguiculate; limb reflexed, ovate-oblong, obtuse, 1 1/2 lin. long; appendage pandurate, with suborbicular minutely crenulate limb, 1 3/4 lin. long; column short; arms of the rostellum oblong, obtuse, incurved, 1 1/4 lin. long.
Habitat:
Distribution:
SW. Cape Prov.

Corycium carnosum (Lindl.) Rolfe in W.H.Harvey & auct. suc. (eds.), Fl. Cap. 5: 111 (1913).
Homotypic Synonyms:
Pterygodium carnosum Lindl., Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 367 (1839).
Heterotypic Synonyms:
Pterygodium patersoniae Schltr., Ann. Transvaal Mus. 10: 250 (1924).
Description:
An erect glabrous herb, black when dried, 15-35 cm. high; stem slender, straight or subflexuous, leafy; leaves erect, lanceolate or linear, acuminate, 5-15 cm. long ; spike oblong or cylindrical, densely many-flowered, the flowers erect; bracts herbaceous, ovate or lanceolate, acute or acuminate, exceeding the ovary; lateral sepals ascending, obliquely ovate-oblong, subacute or acuminate, 0,6 cm. long; odd sepal erect lanceolate subacute, as long as the lateral ones; petals erect, strongly concave, semi-orbicular, shortly acuminate, as long as the odd sepal, the mouth of the galea 0,6-0,7 cm. wide; limb of the lip spreading convex unguiculate, the blade transversely semi-elliptical, very obtuse or emarginate at the apex, the appendix galeate, obtusely rostrate; stigmas two distant tuberculate; column furnished at the base at the back with thick hyaline hairs. The petals are a light or dark purplish colour, the limb of the lip nearly white.
Habitat:
In fynbos from near sea level to 1500 meters often in seepage areas.
Phenology:
Flowering in the spring and early summer.
Distribution:
SW. & S. Cape Prov.
References:
Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzwell 1999; The Cape Orchids Vol 2 Liltved & Johnson 2012
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© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Cameron McMaster. Image used with kind permission.