e-Key v3 - Platylepis
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Interactive keys to the identification of seed plants of southern Africa using keys based on plant morphology.

Orchidaceae - Spiranthoideae - Cranichidae - Platylepis A.Rich.

Description :

  • Terrestrial herbs, with creeping rhizomes
  • Leaves petiolate, ovate or ovate-lanceolate
  • Inflorescence a few- to many-flowered raceme; flowers white, greenish or pinkish brown; bracts ovate, glandular hairy
  • Sepals subequal, free; laterals united at base into short chin
  • Petals narrow, partly cohering with median sepal to form hood
  • Lip partly adnate to gynostemium, saccate at base, with variously shaped calli
  • Gynostemium elongate, with erect anther as long as rostellum; pollinia 2, attached to single viscidium; stigmas broad, papillose
  • Capsule oblong, shortly contracted at apex

Nomenclature:

  • Platylepis A.Rich.
    • Richard: 34, t. 6 (1828) name conserved
    • Rolfe: 82 (1912)
    • Phillips: 240 (1951)
    • Schelpe: 54 (1966)
    • Stewart et al.: 212 (1982)
    • Linder & Kurzweil: 75 (1999)

Distribution & Notes:

  • Global : Species ± 10, Africa and Mascarene Islands
  • Southern Africa : Species 1: Platylepis glandulosa (Lindl.) Rchb.f., KwaZulu-Natal north of Durban

References:

  • LINDER, H.P. & KURZWEIL, H. 1999. Orchids of southern Africa . A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam
  • PHILLIPS, E.P. 1951. The genera of South African flowering plants. Memoirs of the Botanical Survey of South Africa No. 25
  • RICHARD, A. 1828. Mémoires de la Societé d'Histoire Naturelle de Paris 4
  • ROLFE, R.A. 1912. Order CXXXI. Orchideae . Flora capensis 5,3
  • SCHELPE, E.A. 1966. An introduction to the South African Orchids . Purnell & Sons, Cape Town, Johannesburg
  • STEWART, J., LINDER, H.P., SCHELPE, E.A. & HALL, A.V. 1982. Wild orchids of southern Africa . Macmillan, Johannesburg