Disa cooperi

Disa cooperi, sometimes commonly called tailsup disa and mametsana-a-liliba in Southern Sotho, is a robust, perennial that grows from a tuber to heights ranging between 40 cm and 70 cm. A separate sterile stem bearing only leaves grows annually from the rootstock next to the flower stalk. This is one of the southern African disas with spurs longer than 2 cm. 

The species distribution is in the east of South Africa, from the far north of the Eastern Cape, the far west of KwaZulu-Natal, the far east of the Free State and along the escarpment in Mpumalanga; also in Lesotho. 

The habitat is stony grassland in the Drakensberg and the Malutis at elevations from 1500 m to 2200 m. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Manning, 2009; Pooley, 1998; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).