Orthochilus chloranthus short spurs

Short stubby spurs of a couple of Orthochilus chloranthus flowers stick out below the back ends of the flower lips in the photo. The lower one is already dried out and gone, the upper one green, nearly straight and cylindrical.

The shiny ridges upon the ovaries continue onto the outside surfaces of the pointed lateral sepals. The floral bracts are small, pointed and brown from drying out at the base of the ovaries. Thin at the base, the ovary reduces into a pedicel where it joins the stem and the bract folds around it.

The pale lemon yellow flower segments are not open widely here, their surfaces fleshy (www.africanorchids.dk).