Disa brevicornis flowers

The small brown and green flowers of Disa brevicornis are densely spaced in a cylindrical spike. The upper tepal (or sepal) is reddish brown on top, pale cream below and hood-shaped with one spur at its back. The lip is fairly small, from 6 mm to 8 mm long.

The outer whorl of three segments in an orchid flower are sepals, the inner ones petals, including the lip; together they are the six segments or tepals in the monocot flower as in a lily.

The specific name brevicornis (Latin) makes sense from the word’s meaning, short horn, referring to the short spur, shorter than the ovary of the flower.

Flowering happens in spring to early summer in the southern Cape where the rain comes in winter, later to early autumn in the summer rainfall parts of the distribution of the species (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; www.zimbabweflora.co.zw; www.pacificbulbsociety.org).