Disa lisowskii Szlach., Fragm. Florist. Geobot. 39: 546 (1994).
Description:
Tubers 2-3 cm long, 1-1.5 cm in diameter, ovoid or ellipsoid. Flowering stem 52 cm tall, erect, stout, glabrous, completely covered by imbricating cauline leaves. Leaves 16, up to 5.5 cm long and 2.3 cm wide, ovate-lanceolate, acute, erect to suberect, loosely adpressed to the stem, middle and upper leaves narrower, acuminate, bract-like. Inflorescence 16 cm long, multiflowered, dense. Floral bracts up to 25 mm long, lanceolate-ovate, acuminate, longer than flowers. Ovary 10 mm long. Dorsal sepal 7.5-8 mm long, 5.5 mm wide, obovate-elliptic, cochleate, rounded at the apex, cucullate, attenuate towards the base, spurred near the centre, glabrous. Spur 7 mm long, 1.2 mm in diameter, slightly swollen near the middle, blunt. Petals 5 mm long, 3 mm wide, bilobed near the expanded apex, both lobes more or less equal in length and size, rounded at apices, blade-like at the base, anterior part undulate and minutely erose along margin, posterior part entire. Lateral sepals 6 mm long, 4 mm wide, obliquely oblong-elliptic, cucullate at rounded apex, glabrous. Lip 4 mm long, 0.4 mm wide, linear, acute, less than half of the ovary length. Anther 5.5 mm long.
Habitat:
No data.
Cultivation:
As given for the genus.
Notes:
Disa lisowskii appears to be related to Disa welwitschii and Disa danielae Geerinck, from which it differs by having posterior petal lobes slightly longer than the anterior one, rounded, irregularly dentate on margins. In both Disa welwitschii and Disa danielae posterior petal lobes are much longer than the anterior, acute to acuminate, sometimes obtuse and entire on margins.
Distribution:
DR Congo, known so far from type collection only.
References:
Orchidaceae of West-central Africa, vol. 1, Gdansk University Press Gdansk 2010; Fragm. Florist. Geobot. (1994).