Stems
up to 1 m long, fusiform-pseudobulbous, leafy
Leaves
distichous, plicate-veined
Inflorescences
axillary panicles from apical nodes; flowers large, yellow or blotched with brown; bracts small
Sepals
and petals similar
Lip
3-lobed; disc with 2 or 3 parallel keels
Gynostemium
with prominent column-part and short column-foot; anther operculate and incumbent; pollinia 4 in 2 pairs, waxy; stigma in cavity below rostellum
Capsule
ellipsoid, capped by persistent perianth-base
x = 21
Nomenclature:
Ansellia
Lindl.
Lindley: t. 12 (1844)
Rolfe: 62 (1912)
Phillips: 241 (1951)
Schelpe: 32 (1966)
Harrison: 8 (1972)
Stewart et al.: 221 (1982)
Linder & Kurzweil: 404 (1999)
Distribution & Notes:
Global
: Species 1:
Ansellia africana
Lindl., variable, tropical Africa south to South Africa
Southern Africa
: N Namibia, N Botswana, Northern Province, Swaziland and KwaZulu-Natal
References:
HARRISON, E.R. 1972.
Epiphytic orchids of southern Africa
. Natal Branch of the Wildlife Society of Southern Africa
LINDER, H.P. & KURZWEIL, H. 1999.
Orchids of southern Africa
. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam
LINDLEY, J. 1844.
Ansellia africana
.
Botanical Register
30
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
STEWART, J., LINDER, H.P., SCHELPE, E.A. & HALL, A.V. 1982.
Wild orchids of southern Africa
. Macmillan, Johannesburg
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