Disa renziana Szlach., Fragm. Florist. Geobot. 39: 545 (1994).
Description:
Tuber single, up to 3 cm long, 1.5-2 cm in diameter, ellipsoid to nearly globose. Sterile stem ca. 3 cm, 2-leaved, leaves 11-13 cm long, 1.3-1.5 cm wide, oblanceolate, acute. Flowering stem 29-36 cm tall, erect, stout, glabrous, completely covered by imbricating cauline leaves. Leaves 7-8, up to 8.5 cm long and 2.5 cm wide, lanceolate to oblong-lanceolate, acute, semi-spread, being narrower up the stem, the upper bract-like. Inflorescence 13-14 cm long, 9-12-flowered, dense. Flowers medium sized. Floral bracts up to 65 mm long, lanceolate, acute, leafy, ca. 1.5 times longer than flowers. Ovary 15 mm long. Dorsal sepal 17 mm long and wide, nearly orbicular, rounded at the apex, cochleate, subsessile, spurred near the centre. Spur 8 mm long, 2 mm in diameter, club-like, blunt, pendent, reaching shortly below the base of dorsal sepal. Petals unlobed; the basal part 10 mm long, 6 mm wide, semi-elliptic to semi-orbicular narrowing towards the apex; apical part 7 mm long, 4 mm wide, obscurely pandurate, acute, undulate on the posterior margin. Lateral sepals 20 mm long, 7 mm wide, obliquely oblong-lanceolate, obtuse, cucullate at the apex. Lip 17-18 mm long, 1 mm wide, linear, acute, single-nerved, pendent, longer than ovary. Gynostemium 9 mm long, anther erect.
Habitat:
Grasslands.
Cultivation:
As given for the genus.
Notes:
Disa renziana is characterised by the longest lip in the subgenus, distinctly reaching below the base of the ovary.
Distribution:
Known so far from type locality only. Alt. 1700 m. DR Congo
References:
Orchidaceae of West-central Africa, vol. 1,Gdansk University Press Gdansk 2010