Schizochilus crenulatus

Schizochilus crenulatus, the notched schizochilus, is a terrestrial orchid reaching heights from 10 cm to 35 cm. The slender herb grows annual leaves and flowers from a perennial underground tuber.

The basal leaves, two to four of them, are bigger than the stem-leaves that reduce in size higher up and grade into the floral bracts. The leaf-shape is linear, the tips acutely pointed. The basal leaves become about 7 cm long, 0,4 cm wide. The few, scattered stem leaves sheathe it.

The species is endemic to Mpumalanga, the plants only found on the plateau near Graskop and towards Mariepskop.

The habitat is damp grassland along the soil edges over exposed bedrock. The rain on this land comes in the summer months, often as thunder storms. The orchids grow and bloom during summer, capitalising on heat and moisture.

The species is considered vulnerable in its habitat early in the twenty first century, due to commercial forestry plantations and possibly mining (www.africanorchids.dk; www.orchidspecies.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).