Disa bifida

Disa bifida is a slender perennial, a terrestrial orchid growing a wiry, sometimes zigzagging stem from an ovoid root tuber to heights from 25 cm to 35 cm. In Afrikaans it is commonly known as kapotjie, a name probably defying translation, but in literal meaning close to little tired or little tired one. The species went by the name of Schizodium bifidum until the late twentieth century, earlier (when first described) as Satyrium bifidum.

This South African endemic is distributed mostly in the Western Cape from Clanwilliam and the Cederberg in the west, extending coastally to the Eastern Cape as far as Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth).

The habitat is flats to mountain slopes and deep sand, gravel or clay soils at altitudes from 15 m to 900 m. The vegetation varies here from fynbos to renosterveld. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).