Satyrium microrrhynchum

Satyrium microrrhynchum is a terrestrial orchid, a small, slender herb growing an erect annual flower stem to heights of up to 36 cm from a perennial underground tuber. Its few lance-shaped, thick-textured leaves sheathe the stem; both stem and leaves are hairless.

The bluntly pointed leaf tips are nearly erect, the leaves spaced, decreasing in size up to the flower spike where leaves grade into bracts.

The species distribution is in the east of the country, from the far northeast of the Eastern Cape northwards across inland KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga. This plant is not a South Africa endemic as it also grows in Lesotho.

The habitat is Drakensberg grassland slopes, especially moist, rocky areas covered in short grass at elevations ranging between 1600 m and 3000 m. The dry grass on this land is typically burnt in winter. Because of its remoteness at high altitude, this rare species still has a stable population in habitat early in the twenty first century (Johnson, et al, 2007, American Journal of Botany, 94(1), pp. 47-55; www.redlist.sanbi.org; Wikipedia; www.orchidspecies.com).