Plate 130.
Reading edition
HABENARIA FOLIOSA. Cape Province, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Natal.
Orchidaceae. Tribe Ophrydeae. Habenaria, Willd.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 624.
Habenaria foliosa, Reichb. f. in Flora, 1865, 180; Fl. Cap. vol. v. sect. iii. p. 121; Bolus Ic. Orch. Austro-Afr. ii. t. 46.
The species of Habenaria figured here has a wide range of distribution in South Africa. Starting from Swellendam in the south, it follows more or less the littoral strip as far as Port Alfred, and then spreads inland through the Transkei and East Griqualand into Natal, and through Basutoland and the eastern part of the Free State and up into the Transvaal Drakensbergen. The species is also met with in the Pretoria District, which is outside its normal range of distribution. In Basutoland the natives call it “Mametsana,” meaning “the mother of the small water.” The spur contains a watery substance which becomes jelly-like on exposure to air.
Around Pretoria the plant flowers in late summer, about February, after the rains, and is then frequently met with in the veld. The plate was prepared from specimens collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, C.M.G., at Irene in February 1923.
Description:—Plant 30-40 cm. high. Tuber 5 cm. long, 2·5 cm. in diameter, ellipsoid, with thick cylindric roots arising from the junction of the stem and tuber. Stem covered with many amplexicaul leaves which pass gradually into the bracts. Leaves 4·5-8 cm. long, up to 3 cm. wide, ovate to ovate-lanceolate, stem-clasping at the base, obtuse or subapiculate at the apex, keeled with the midrib and 2 lateral veins prominent or distinct, glabrous. Inflorescence many-flowered, up to 13 cm. long. Bracts similar to the leaves but smaller. Dorsal sepal 1 cm. long, 9 mm. broad, ovate, deeply concave, faintly 3-nerved; lateral sepals 1·3 cm. long, 4·5 mm. broad, oblong, unequal sided, slightly cucullate at the apex, faintly 3-nerved. Petals 1·4-1·5 cm. long, 1 cm. broad, unequal sided, revolute on one margin near the apex, faintly 5-nerved. Lip 2 cm. long, with revolute margins and with two lateral filiform appendages at the base. Spur 3·5 cm. long, cylindric, clavate at the apex. Rostellum triangular in outline, the two side lobes notched. Pollinia sacs behind the rostellum. Stigmas separate, oblong, with small papillae at the junction of the stigma and pollinium sac. Ovary deeply grooved and angled (National Herb. 2730).
Plate 130.—Fig. 1, median longitudinal section of flower; Fig. 2, front of flower, showing lip and column; Fig. 3, sepals; Fig. 4, a petal; Fig. 5, ovary; Fig. 6, pollinium.
F.P.S.A., 1924.
