Disa chrysostachya in numbers

Large colonies of some South African orchid species may be encountered in the summer grass of the Highveld, for those that care to walk there. This stand of Disa chrysostachya is still pale yellow, only in bud, but healthy.

Erect leaves that sheathe the stems are lush and green below the thin, cylindrical inflorescences visible above the grass. In winter (almost) all that has grown here dries, changes colour and disappears as grazer food, either directly or cut and baled on the extensive Highveld farms. That is if fire and trampling don’t take it all.

The tuberous disa roots survive among the thousands of hidden perennial plant rootstock bases that return afresh with every spring rain, irrespective of the way in which last year’s growth had succumbed.

The rest of the grassland species mix grows from seed annually.