Species Information - Habenaria polyschista

Habenaria polyschista Schltr. in K.Schum. & Lauterb., Nachtr. Fl. Deutsch. Schutzgeb. Südsee (1905) 80

Type: Schlechter 14475 (holo B, lost)

Synonyms:

• Habenaria ramosa R.S.Rogers & C.T.White, Trans. & Proc. Roy. Soc. South Australia 44 (1920) 117, pl. 8
  - Type: White 680 (BRI)

Stem erect, stout, terete, 60-70 cm by 7 mm, leafy, the leaves becoming shorter in upper part, below the rachis with short-lived sheaths, glabrous. Leaves erect-patent, lanceolate, to 20 by 3 cm, apex acuminate. Inflorescences racemose, rather densely many-flowered. Floral bracts erect-patent, lanceolate, apex long-acuminate, about as long as the ovary, glabrous. Pedicel and ovary 2.5 cm long, clavate, glabrous. Flowers resupinate, c. 1.5 cm across. Dorsal sepal ovate, 0.8 cm by 0.4 mm, concave, apex acute. Lateral sepals obliquely ovate-lanceolate, 0.8 cm long, apex acuminate. Petals bilobed, posterior lobe linear-subfalcate, about as long as the median sepal with which it is coherent along the inner margin, obtuse, anterior lobe longer than the posterior lobe, from a linear base divided into more or less divergent filiform segments. Lip 3-lobed, spurred; lateral lobes from a linear base divided into filiform segments similar to those of the anterior lobe of the petals; mid-lobe narrowly linear, 0.8 cm long, subacute; spur pendulous, cylindric, shorter than the ovary, a little widened in apical third. Column with a low, triangular, obtuse rostellum. Anther with subulate anther channels as long as the stigmatophores. (After Schlechter, 1905).

---