Calanthe sylvatica (Thouars) Lindl. 1833 SUBGENUS Calanthe SECTION Calanthe SERIES Sylvatica
Photo by © Dominique Karadioff
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
TO 
and
Common Name The Forest-Dwelling Calanthe - In China Chang Ju Xia Ji Lan
Flower Size 1 to 2" [2.5 to 5 cm]
Found in Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Sao Tome e Principe, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Uganda, Zaire, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Comoros Islands, Madagascar and the Mascarenes, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Java, Sumatra, Borneo, Vietnam and southeastern China at elevations of 400 to 2700 meters in broadleafed, evergreen, humid primary forests in soils dampened by mists and splash along steep watercourses in humus and deep shade, as a medium sized, cool to hot growing terrestrial with small, 2 to 4 noded, ovoid pseudobulbs enveloped by basal leaf sheaths and carrying several, broad, elliptic-lanceolate, plicate, longitudinally ribbed, dark green, sulcate, softly pubescent, acuminate, gradually narrowing below into the petiolate base leaves that are narrowed below into a petiole that blooms in the spring and summer on an erect, successively opening, 20 to 28" [50 to 70 cm] long, racemose, slightly pubescent, few to many flowered inflorescence.
C mascua is often considered conspecific with this species with this one taking precedence but I have left them separate pending more reseach.
Calanthe candida is also listed as a synonym of C sylvatica but I feel that there are sufficient differences to warrant its exclusion from this species.
Synonyms Alismorkis centrosis (Thouars) Steud. 1840; Alismorkis natalensis (Rchb.f.) Kuntze 1891; Alismorkis plantaginea (Thouars) Kuntze 1891; Alismorkis purpurea (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Alismorkis textori (Miq.) Kuntze 1891; Bletia sylvatica (Thouars) Bojer 1837; Calanthe candida Bosser 1989; Calanthe corymbosa Lindl. 1862; Calanthe delphinioides Kraenzl. 1893; Calanthe emarginata [Bl] Lindl. 1833; Calanthe furcata f. textori (Miq.) M.Hiroe 1971; Calanthe humbertii H.Perrier 1955; Calanthe longicalcarata Hayata ex Yamam. 1930; Calanthe masuca Thwaites 1884; Calanthe natalensis (Rchb. f.) Rchb. f. 1856; Calanthe neglecta Schltr. 1915; Calanthe purpurea Lindl. 1833; Calanthe sanderiana Rolfe 1892; Calanthe schliebenii Mansf. 1933; Calanthe seikooensis Yamam. 1931; Calanthe stolzii Schltr. 1915; Calanthe sylvatica var. geerinckiana Stévart 2000; Calanthe sylvatica var. natalensis Rchb.f. 1846; Calanthe sylvatica var. pallidipetala Schltr 1924; Calanthe sanderiana Rolfe 1892; Calanthe sylvestris Lindl. ex Steud. 1840; Calanthe textori Miq. 1866; Calanthe volkensii Rolfe 1897; Centrosia aubertii A.Rich. 1828; Centrosis corymbosa Thouars 1822; *Centrosis sylvatica Thouars 1852;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Historie Particulier des Plantes Orchidees Recueilles Sur Trois Iles Australes d'Afrique Thouars 1822 as Centrosis sylvatica drawing fide; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856 as C natalensis; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1857 as C emarginata; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 as C mascua drawing fide; Die Orchideen Von Java J.J.Sm. 1905 as C emarginata; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as C mascua; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as C natalensis photo ok; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as C mascua drawing good; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 as C natalensis drawing fide; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as C natalensis; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as C silvatica; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 10 1963 as C volkensii photo fide; An Introduction to the South African Orchids Schelpe 1966 as C natalensis; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 as C corymbosa; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 as C volkensii photo good; The Epiphytic Orchids of Malawi Morris 1970 as C sanderiana; Orchids of Southern Ryukyu Islands Garay & Sweet 1974 as C textori drawing fide; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 as C corymbosa drawing/photo fide; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 as C natalensis drawing/photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 45 No 4 1981 photo ok as C emarginata; AOS Bulletin Vol 51 # 9 1982 as C natalensis postage stamp fide; Wild Orchids of Southern Africa Stewart, Linder, Schelpe & Hall 1982 photo fide; Die Orchideen Band 3 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas Liferung #14 820 - 880 1984 as C corymbosa; Die Orchideen Band 3 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas Liferung #14 820 - 880 1984 as C natalensis; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas # 43-46 Thuniinae etc 1984 as C masuca photo ok; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas # 43-46 Thuniinae etc 1984 photo ok; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984 drawing fide; Flore D'Afrique Centrale [Zaire- Rwands - Burundi] Orhidaceae Premeir parte Geerink 1984 drawing/photo fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Orchids of Java Comber 1990 photo fide; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb and Laurent 1992 photo good; Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia and Singapore Seidenfaden & Woods 1992 drawing/photo fide; Orchids of Borneo Vol 1 Chan, Shim, Lamb & Wood 1994 drawing/photo fide; A Checklist of the Orchids of Borneo Wood & Cribb 1994 drawing fide; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 1 Pope 1995 Drawing fide; Orchids Of Kenya Stewart 1996 photo fide; Wild Orchids of China Tsi, Chen Mori 1997; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997 photo fide; Native Orchids of China in Colour Chen, Tsi and Luo 1999 photo fide; Orchids of Southern Africa Linder & Kurzweil 1999 drawing/photo fide; A to Z of SE Asian Orchids O'Byrne 2001 photo fide; A field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2001 as C mascua photo ok; Beautiful Orchids of Nepal Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001 as C mascua; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2002; Orchids of Sumatra Comber 2001 photo not; Orchids of Sarawak Beaman, Wood & Beaman etal 2001; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Lindleyana Vol 17 No 1 2002; Flora Malesiana Orchids of the Philippines Vol I Agoo, Shuiteman and de Vogel 2003 as C masuca; AOS Bulletin Vol 73 No 3 2004; Wild Orchids in Myanamar Vol 2 Tanaka 2004 as C mascua; A field Guide to the Wild Orchids of Thailand Vaddhanaphuti 2005 as C mascua photo ok; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005; Turczaninowia 19 (3): 5–58 L. V. Averyanov1 , Khang Sinh Nguyen etal 2016 photo fide; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 photo ok; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007 as C purpurea; Orchids of Madagascar Hermans, Cribb, Bosser and Dupuy 2007; Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland McMurty, Grobler, Grobler & Burns 2008; A Field Guide to the Orchids of China Singchi, Zhongjian, Yibo, Xiaohua and Zhanhuo 2009 photo ok; Field Guide to the Orchids of Madagascar Hermans and Cribb 2009 photo fide; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009; Flora of China Vol 25 Illustrations Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2010 drawing ok; The Atlas of Wild Orchids in Hainan Island, China Shenyan and Junmei 2010 photo fide; The Wild Orchids in Yunnan Xu Xiang Ye & Liu 2010 photos ok; Wild Orchids of Penninsular Malaysia Ong, O'Byrne, Yong & Saw 2011 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 82 #9 2013 photo fide; Les Orchidees de Madagascar Bosser & Lecoufle 2015 photo fide; A la Recherche des Orchidees de Madagascar Hervouet 2018 photo fide; Atlas of Native Orchids of China Vol 2 Jin Xiaohua, Li Jianwu and Ye Deping 2019 photo fide;
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