Terrestrial or rarely epiphytic herbs, with long fibrous roots
Stems pseudobulbous, leafy, small and obscured
Leaves 2-several, petiolate, plicate, very thin, limb elliptic to oblong-lanceolate
Inflorescence a lateral raceme; scape erect, with several sheathing bracts towards base, ± pubescent; flowers often large, in our species white to pink; bracts lanceolate to ovate-lanceolate
Sepals subequal, free, usually widely spreading
Petals similar to sepals
Lip fused to gynostemium, spurred, 3-lobed, disc variously crested or lamellate
Gynostemium short; anther operculate, incumbent; pollinia 8, rather soft, clavate, viscidium elliptic or lanceolate; rostellum bifid
Capsule elliptic-oblong
x = 10 (aneuploids, high polyploidy)
Nomenclature:
Calanthe R.Br.
Brown: t. 573 (1821)
Rolfe: 11 (1912)
Phillips: 241 (1951)
Schelpe: 24 (1966)
Stewart et al.: 215 (1982)
Linder & Kurzweil: 405 (1999)
Distribution & Notes:
Global: Species ± 200, widespread in Asia, Australasia and Madagascar, 1 each in Africa and Central America
Southern Africa: Species 1: Calanthe sylvatica (Thouars) Lindl., in eastern parts, Northern Province to Knysna (Western Cape)
References:
BROWN, R. 1821. Calanthe. Botanical Register 7
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
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
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Welcome to Biodiversity Advisor 2.0!
Biodiversity Advisor, developed by the South African National Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) and its Data Partners, is a system that will provide integrated biodiversity information to a wide range of users who will have access to geospatial data, plant and animal species distribution data, ecosystem-level data, literature, images and metadata.
The integrated information comes from our much-loved Botanical Database of Southern Africa (BODATSA) also known as Plants of Southern Africa (POSA), Zoological Database of Southern Africa (ZODATSA), Biodiversity Geographic Information System (BGIS), SANBI's institutional repository (Opus) and others.
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