Microcoelia smithii (Rolfe) Summerh. 1943 Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Common Name Smith's Microcoelia [British Original Collector of species 1800's]

Flower Size .25" [6 mm]

Found in Kenya, Tanzania and Malawi in dry deciduous forests and thickets at elevations of sealevel to 600 meters as a miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with silvery grey roots radiating from a short central stem forming a mound that blooms in the spring on up to 12, simultaneous, .8 to 2" [2 to 5 cm] long, flexous, smooth , terete, usually dense, 4 to 12 flowered inflorescence with loosely sheathing, acute to subacute, 3 nerved bracts.

This species is often confused with M moureaue but differs in its lower, dryer habitat, terete rachis with distinct sheathing bracts, longer and more acute tepals and a straight spur.

Synonyms *Angraecum smithii Rolfe 1895; Gussonea smithii (Rolfe) Schltr. 1918

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 photo ok; A Monograph of the Genus Microcoelia [Orchidaceae] Jonsson 1981 drawing; Orquideologia Vol 15 #2-3 1982 photo ok; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 3 Cribb 1989; Orchids of Kenya Stewart 1996 photo good; African Orchids in the wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Pope 1998; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 3 2003 photo fide; Angraecoid Orchids Stewart, Hermans and Campbell 2006 photo fide

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