Disa rhodantha

Disa rhodantha, sometimes commonly called the swamp disa, is a ground orchid, a perennial herb growing leaves and flowers annually from a tuberous rootstock. The slender plant reaches heights from 30 cm to 60 cm and may also produce a sterile shoot next to the flowering one, bearing only up to four leaves and no inflorescence.

The leaves are narrowly elliptic to linear, folding in along their midribs, sometimes with petioles. The smaller stem leaves overlap, sheathe the stem and grade into floral bracts that each subtends a flower.

The species distribution ranges from the far northeast of the Eastern Cape along the KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg to Mpumalanga and Limpopo, as well as some neighbouring countries, including Zimbabwe.

The habitat is moist to swampy montane grassland, the plants often growing along streambanks at elevations between 1500 m and 2000 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; www.orchidspecies.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).