Habenaria stenorhynchos Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 20(50): 33 (1895).
Homotypic Synonyms:
Ceratopetalorchis stenorhynchos (Schltr.) Szlach., Górniak & Tukallo, Richardiana 3: 162 (2003).
Heterotypic Synonyms:
Habenaria dactylostigma Schltr., Bot. Jahrb. Syst. 53: 509 (1915), nom. illeg.
Description:
A terrestrial herb 1.5-4.5 dm. high, glabrous except for the roots. Tubers ellipsoid or ovoid, 1-2.5 cm. long, 0.5-1.5 cm. in diameter, ± tomentose. Stem erect, rather slender, leafy throughout its length. Leaves 4-8, the lowermost 1 or 2 often reduced to sheaths, the lower 3-4 suberect or ± spreading, oblong-lanceolate to lanceolate-ovate or ovate, the largest 3.5-8.5 cm. long and 0.7-2 cm. broad, the upper ones adpressed to the stem, lanceolate, acute, decreasing in size upwards, the uppermost similar to the bracts. Inflorescence up to 11 cm. long and 3.5 cm. in diameter, loosely 1-7(very rarely -19)-flowered. Bracts leafy, lanceolate, acute, 1-2.5 cm. long, mostly shorter than the pedicel with ovary. Flowers suberect, or almost erect, white with green veins on the sepals; pedicel with ovary straight, 1.5-2.5 cm. long. Dorsal sepal erect, very convex, acute, ± 1 cm. long, 2.5—4.5 mm. broad; laterals deflexed, obliquely obovate, subacute, ± 1 mm. longer than the dorsal, 5-6.5 mm. broad. Petals bipartite nearly to the base; posterior (upper) lobe erect, linear, 8-9.5 mm. long, ± 0.75 mm. broad; anterior lobe spreading forwards and curved upwards, linear,10-13 mm. long, almost I mm. broad. Lip deflexed, tripartite nearly to the base, the undivided basal part scarcely 1 mm. long; middle lobe linear, ± 12mm. long and 1mm. broad; side lobes much shorter, linear, 5.5- 8.5 mm. long, ± 0.5 mm. broad; spur pendent, club-shaped, obtuse, ± 8 mm. long. Anther erect, ± 4 mm. high, canals porrect with incurved apices, ± 7 mm. long; stigmas porrect, slender, suddenly widened and truncate at the apex, 6-7 mm. long, rostellum linear-triangular, acute, 2-3 mm. long.
Habitat:
Boggy grasslands, dambo. 850-1900 m.
Phenology:
Flowering in November-March.
Cultivation:
As given for the genus, cool to cold growing terrestrial.
Distribution:
Tanzania, Angola, Zambia, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa.
References:
Orchidaceae of West-central Africa, vol. 1, Gdansk University Press Gdansk 2010; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 1 Summerhayes 1968; Flora zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 1 Pope 1995; Flora Capensis, Vol 5, Part 3, page 3, (1913) Author: (By R. A. ROLFE.); THE ORCHIDS OF MALAŴI Brian Morris, The Society of Malawi Journal, Vol. 35, No. 2 (1982), pp. 7-23
Images:
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Habitat/In situ	Habitat/In situ
Photograph© Nicholas Case Wightman Image used with kind permission.	Photograph© Nicholas Case Wightman Image used with kind permission.