Tridactyle tridactylites (Rolfe) Schltr. 1918

Plant and Flower in situ Zimbabwe

Photos by Bart Wursten ©, and his Flora Of Zimbabwe WebSite

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Common Name The Three Fingered Tridactyle

Flower Size .4" [1 cm]

Found in Guinea, Ivory Coast, Burundi, Central African Republic, Cameroon, Gabon, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Rwanda, Zaire, Tanzania, Uganda, Angola, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe in evergreen and or riverine forests at elevations of 900 to 1800 meters on trunks and lower branches of trees or lithophyte on rocks as a giant sized, warm growing epiphyte with an elongate, erect to trailing stem carrying distichous, in the apical third, linear to strap-shaped, unequally bilobed apically leaves that blooms in the late spring and early summer on several to many arising along the stem, 1 to 2" [2.5 to 5 cm] long, 10 to 16 flowered, racemose inflorescence.

Synonyms Aeranthes diesteliana Kraenzl. 1902; Angraecum kindtianum (De Wild.) De Wild. 1906; *Angraecum tridactylites Rolfe 1888; Listrostachys kindtiana De Wild. 1903; Mystacidium ledermannianum Kraenzl. 1914; Tridactyle kindtiana (De Wild.) Schltr. 1918; Tridactyle ledermanniana (Kraenzl.) Schltr. 1918

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; aos bULLETIN vOL 32 #10 1963; Orchids of East Africa Piers 1968 photo good; The Epiphytic Orchids of Malawi Morris 1970; The Orchids of South Central Africa Williamson 1977 drawing/photo fide; Malawi Orchids Vol 1 La Croix 1983 drawing fide; Rudolph Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 16/17/18 945-1128 Brieger 1985 photo fide; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 3 Cribb 1989; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing ok; African Orchids in the Wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997 drawing fide; Flora Zambesiaca Vol 11 Orchidaceae Part 2 Pope 1998 drawing good; Les Orchidees de Cote d'Ivorie Perez-Vera 2003 drawing/photo fide; Angraecoid Orchids Stewart, Hermans and Campbell 2006 photo fide

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