Pterygodium ingeanum on the Bokkeveld Plateau

Pterygodium ingeanum, previously Corycium ingeanum, an endangered terrestrial orchid of the Bokkeveld Plateau near Nieuwoudtville, grows in the most northerly reaches of fynbos transition into renosterveld. Neither fynbos nor renosterveld is in your face anymore on the flats of the area, as agriculture predominates here; the cause of the plants endangered status.

P. ingeanum grows at elevations between 700 m and 800 m, receiving mainly winter rain of about 400 mm per annum. The clay-loam soil found here is seasonally wet, becoming very hard by spring.

The many-flowered, leafy plants become about 20 cm tall, bearing small, rounded, yellow-green flowers that appear somewhat closed (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; iSpot).