Platycoryne lisowskiana Szlach. & Kras, Polish Bot. J. 53: 103 (2008).
Description:
Tubers one or two, 1-2 cm long, 0.4-0.6 cm in diameter, narrowly ellipsoid. Stem 23-35 cm tall, erect, delicate, glabrous. Leaves 5-7, more or less basal, erect to sub-erect, the remaining ones scattered along stem, 3.0-6.5 cm long and 0.60.9 cm wide, narrowly lanceolate, acute, suberect, decreasing in size towards the apex of the stem, the last upper ones bract-like, ca 2 cm long, the lower 1-2 sheath-like. Inflorescence 5.0-6.5 cm long, 2-5-flowered, lax. Flowers small, resupinate, yellow to orange. Floral bracts 7-17 mm long, broadly ovate to semi-orbicular, apiculate, glabrous. Pedicel 7-15 mm long. Ovary 15-20 mm long, erect, cylindrical. Dorsal sepal 7-10 mm long, 6 mm wide, semi-orbicular, apiculate, coch-leate, glabrous, nerves unbranched. Petals 6-9 mm long, 2 mm wide, entire, linear-lanceolate, falcate, acute or subacute. Lateral sepals 8-10 mm long, 2.5-3.5 mm wide, obliquely oblong-lanceolate, obtuse to subacute. Lip 7-8 mm long, 1.5 mm wide, ligulate, obtuse, rather fleshy with revolute margins, pendent, occasionally with small basal tooth. Spur 15-20 mm long, 1 mm in diameter, narrowly cylindrical, blunt to subacute. Anther 3.3 mm tall, the connective apiculate, the rostellum middle lobe adnate to the anther, slightly longer than the connective.
Etymology:
Dedicated to Professor Stanislaw Lisowski (1926-2002), an eminent Polish scientist, who botanized extensively in Africa.
Habitat:
Dry area in thin clayey loam on laterite, seasonally inundated, sand on sandstone shield in meadows. Flowering May-July.
Note:
Platycoryne lisowskiana differs from the closely related Platycoryne megalorrhyncha Summerh. in having leaves shorter than the internodes, the spur longer than the ovary, anthero-phores as long as the rostellum middle lobe, and the rostellum middle lobe delicate, filiform.
Distribution:
Central African Rep.
References:
Platycoryne lisowskiana (Orchidaceae, Orchidoideae), a new species from the Central African Republic, Polish Bot. J. 53: 103 (2008).
Images:
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