Disa bifida flowers

The resupinate flowers of Disa bifida grow in a short, lax raceme. One to seven flowers are borne. They are pink with some white on the median sepal, the spur and the lip. Flower diameter is about 1,5 cm.

The sepals are narrowly lanceolate to oblong and free, the median one shallowly helmet-shaped, pointing up and spurred at the back. The lateral sepals are concave, pointing forward more than spreading, sometimes even inwards to each other at their tips; positioned below the flower centre.

The tiny petals (7 mm long and positioned inside the dorsal sepal) are strap-shaped, their tips unequally two-lobed, the outer lobes longer. This feature gave the species its name of bifida: bi- means two and -fidus means divided (both Latin).

Flowering happens from late winter to mid-spring (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Bond and Goldblatt, 1984).