Habenaria falcicornis subsp. caffra

Habenaria falcicornis subsp. caffra is a terrestrial orchid, a slender to robust deciduous plant growing annual above-ground parts to 70 cm.

The greyish green leaves sheathe the stem and taper to acutely pointed tips. The biggest leaves are basal, while smaller ones grade down in size up the lemon yellow stem into floral bracts in the inflorescence. The basal leaves become about 18 cm long, 2 cm wide.

The species distribution lies in the northeast of the country, in the Free State, KwaZulu-Natal, all the provinces north of the Vaal River and Lesotho.

There is a second subspecies, H. falcicornis subsp. falcicornis with shorter, more rounded petal lobes and growing in a distribution from southern KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and into the Western Cape as far as Swellendam.

The habitat of subsp. caffra is grassland, the other one thriving in marshy areas. Subsp. caffra is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Pooley, 1998; www.redlist.sanbi.org).