Disperis reichenbachiana

Summerhayes, V. B., 1968, Orchidaceae (Part 1) part., Flora of Tropical East Africa 1 (1) : 221-222

4. D. reichenbachiana Eeichb . f.

in Flora 48: 180 (1865); Rolfe in F.T.A. 7: 290 (1898); Piers, Orch. E. Afr.: 43 (1959). Type: Angola, Cuanza Norte, Pungo Andongo, Barrancos de Catete, Welwitsch 694 (W, holo.!, BM, K, LISU, iso.!)

Glabrous herb, 7-5-25 cm. tall, arising from ellipsoid to globose tubers

0-5-2 cm. long, 5-8 mm. wide. Leaves 2-4, alternate, sessile, ovate, ellipticovate or mostly ovate-lanceolate, 2-5-4-2 cm. long, 0-9-2-5 cm. wide, obtuse or subacute, cordate, mostly purplish beneath, the venation often whitish; leaves drying a dark colour. Racemes (l-)2-5-flowered; flowers mostly mauve; bracts leaf-like, elliptic, 0-5-2-3 cm. long, 0-3-1 cm. wide. Intermediate sepal joined to petals to form an obovate or rhomboid, open, apically inflexed limb, 0-5-1 cm. long, 6-5-S-5 mm. wide, mauve or magenta often with 2 darker reversed n-shaped marks filled in with yellow; lateral sepals obliquely oblong, 0-4-1-05 cm. long, 4-5-5 mm. wide, acute, free or joined for about a quarter of their length, bearing shallow sacs 0-5-1 mm. long. Petals triangular-elliptic, 0-8-1 cm. long, 2-3-5 mm. wide. Lip white or yellowish, 6-5-8 mm. long, with claw sharply bent back on itself near base and there bearing a stout papillate appendage divided into 2 diverging arms; claw terminating in a fleshy papillate oblong-cuneate or hoof-shaped appendage, 1-5-2-5 mm. long, joined to the claw near its middle. Fig. 39/4, p. 220.

Uganda. Kigezi District: Lake Bunyonyi, Jan. 1933, C. O. Rogers cfc Gardner 280! Kenya. Trans-Nzoia District: Kitale, June 1950, Wiltshire 6!; Nakuru, July 1932, Jex-Blake in Napier 1894!; N. Kavirondo District: Yala R., on Kisumu-Kakamega roacl, May 1961, Tweedie 2147!

Tanganyika. Iringa District: Sao Hill, Dec. 1959, Watermeyer 172! & Dabaga Highlands, Ihangana Forest Reserve near Kibengu, Feb. 1962, Polhill & Paulo 1467! Distu. U2; K3-5; T7; S. Tome, Congo Republic, Zambia, Rhodesia and Angola Hab. In leaf-mould etc. on forest floors, also rock-crevices in bushy grassland and secondary bushland; 1350-2100 m.

Note. In this species the apical (true) lip-appendage is clearly homologous with the crest on the limb in species 1-3, the limb itself being obsolete.