Pterygodium flanaganii

Pterygodium flanaganii is a tuberous perennial. The leaves are numerous, overlapping up the stem. They continue as reflexed bracts with acute tips pointing downwards among the flowers in the spike. The leaves clasp the stems and remain close to it up to their acute tips. The leaves (and bracts) are covered in conspicuous veins running vertically along the yellowish green surfaces.

Many small flowers are found among the membranous bracts on the sturdy, cylindrical flower spike. Three upper tepals, the dorsal sepal and the two lateral petals, cohere to form the erect hood at the top of the flower. The two lateral sepals join the lip. Some tepals are covered in parallel brown lines. The column and two pollinia are set back in the flower centre.

This plant was photographed flowering in the east of Lesotho in January (iSpot; www.pacificbulbsociety.org).