Ansellia africana flowers in profusion

Ansellia africana flowering can be a busy season with production, pollinators, photographers and all.

The flowering stems of this epiphyte become thick and bamboo-like. The conspicuous pseudobulbs persist and multiply on undisturbed plants. Old leaf sheaths become white and papery. The leaf veins are parallel, orchids being monocots.

A well-grown plant can be more than 1 m wide and 1,8 m tall, the largest of the South African epiphytic orchids.

The plants may live long even on a long-standing dead leadwood, or thrive on the many live trees in the tropical forests. They are stabilised by clinging, anchoring roots that hold on but don’t share nutrients from the host. The roots capitalise quickly on nutrients from runoff for their needs in sustaining the plant (Pooley, 1998; Onderstall, 1984; iNaturalist; Wikipedia; http://pza.sanbi.org).