Disa dracomontana

Disa dracomontana, the Drakensberg disa, is a terrestrial orchid, an herbaceous perennial growing annual leaves and inflorescence from a tuberous rootstock to heights around 45 cm.

The species is distributed in the vicinity of the central Drakensberg from the eastern Free State, across Lesotho to the west of KwaZulu-Natal at elevations of 2100 m to 2900 m.

The habitat is montane grassland on rocky slopes. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century.

There is a species with similar sounding name, the white flowering D. draconis near Cape Town, restricted to a small, low altitude distribution (iNaturalist; iSpot; www.orchidspecies.com; http://redlist.sanbi.org).