Plate 130.
HABENARIA FOLIOSA.
Cape Province, Orange Free State, Transvaal, Natal.
Orchidaceae. Tribe Ophrydeae.
Habenaria, Willd.; Benth. et Hook. f. Gen. Plant. vol. iii. p. 624.
Habenaria foliosa, Reichb. f. in Flora, 1865, 180; Fl. Cap. vol. v. sect. iii.
p. 121; Bolus Ic. Orch. Austro-Afr. ii. t. 46.
The species of Habenaria figured here has a wide range of distribution in South Africa. Starting from Swellendam in the south, it follows more or less the littoral strip as far as Port Alfred, and then spreads inland through the Transkei and East Griqualand into Natal, and through Basutoland and the eastern part of the Free State and up into the Transvaal Drakensbergen. The species is also met with in the Pretoria District, which is outside its normal range of distribution. In Basutoland the natives call it “Mametsana,� meaning “the mother of the small water.� The spur contains a watery substance which becomes jelly-like on exposure to air.
Around Pretoria the plant flowers in late summer, about February, after the rains, and is then frequently met with in the veld. The plate was prepared from specimens collected by Dr. I. B. Pole Evans, C.M.G., at Irene in February 1923.