Disa klugei

Disa klugei is a recently described Disa resembling D. patula var. transvaalensis, but is a bit smaller. It has a decurved spur instead of the straight one found on D. patula. D. klugei flowers later and has a much smaller distribution range.

The plant was first described in the Field Guide to the Orchids of Northern South Africa and Swaziland, by McMurtry, et al, and published by Umdaus in 2008. The naming was in honour of Johan Paul Kluge (1947 to 1998), botanist, plant collector and past Curator of the Lowveld Botanical Garden.

The species distribution is in a limited area in the north of Mpumalanga on the Drakensberg Escarpment near Lydenburg. 

The habitat is montane, sour grassland occurring at elevations ranging between 1200 m and 2100 m. Summer convection rain falls here, the winters cold. The habitat population is deemed vulnerable early in the twenty first century, due to expansion of timber plantations (iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).

(Information was provided by Judd Kirkel Welwitch. See also the Yearbook of SA Orchids of 1999.)