Disa cornuta

Disa cornuta is a robust perennial reaching heights around 60 cm, occasionally 1 m. The specific name, cornuta, meaning horn in Latin, probably refers to the spur of the flower that suggests such resemblance.

The overlapping, ascending leaves visible here are long and lanceolate to ovate, their margins wavy. The leaves being stalkless, sheath the flower stems; the outer surfaces of the lower leaf parts forming these sheaths are covered in transversal maroon lines or rows of spots. Leaves reach up to the beginning of the flower spike.

The species distribution ranges from Clanwilliam to the Cape Peninsula and eastwards along the coast to the Eastern Province. In KwaZulu-Natal the plant grows inland in Drakensberg grassland. It is also found in Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

The habitat in these summer as well as winter rainfall areas includes sandstone slopes in fynbos, as well as alpine and tropical grassland to the north. Very few orchids besides this one and Bonatea speciosa occur both in summer and winter rainfall areas, coping with both alpine and tropical temperatures.

The species is promoted by fire, but also flowers in mature veld and in full shade (Liltved and Johnson, 2012; Andrew, 2012).