Holothrix exilis

Holothrix exilis, sometimes commonly called the minispur hair orchid and in Afrikaans the wollie (woolly), is a small tuberous perennial. This thread orchid, as the holothrixes are sometimes called, reaches from 4 cm to 30 cm annually in its above-ground, deciduous parts. The specific name, exilis, is a Latin word meaning thin, slender or meagre, referring to the stature of the plant.

The two prostrate, ovoid leaves are hairy, in picture sparsely so and only near the margins, the soft hairs long. The upper leaf is smaller.

The flowering stem is densely soft-haired, without bracts and the flowers tend towards one side of the stem (somewhat secund). The about 15 greenish or yellow-lobed flowers are tiny, less than 5 mm in diameter.

Each has a spur of less than 2 mm long at the base. H. villosa is a similar species but with a longer spur of about 5 mm.

Flowering happens from before midspring to early autumn, shorter in some parts of the distribution range.

The species distribution is in the Western Cape from the Cape Peninsula to the Eastern Cape as far as Makhanda (Grahamstown). The photo was taken in the Little Karoo.

The habitat is seasonally moist rocky fynbos in sandy soil from near sea level to elevations around 1500 m. The species is not considered to be threatened in its habitat early in the twenty first century (Vlok and Schutte-Vlok, 2015; Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Manning, 2007;Bond and Goldblatt, 1984; iNaturalist; http://redlist.sanbi.org).