Disa versicolor flower

Dark pink spots on the cream dorsal sepal of Disa versicolor in picture become faint near the front edge of the flower’s hood.

The colouring matches the spots and large patches covering the base of the two lateral sepals. It grades into dark maroon where the lateral sepal surfaces disappear behind the greenish margins of the pair of small, erect lateral petals standing on the sides of the hood.

The hook-shaped, cylindrical spur behind the dorsal sepal has a dark tip pointing down towards the ovary. The spur becomes about 6 mm long.

Between the petals the orchid’s reproductive organs make up the column, including the stigmatic surface, anther and pollinia. The flowers are vanilla scented. These flowers soon turn brown.

The species is closely related to D. maculomarronina (Pooley, 1998; Manning, 2009).