Habenaria is a genus of tuberous terrestrial orchids. Above-ground parts grow annually from perennial, globose or palmate root tubers.
The ground-level leaves are pressed flat on the ground, others may grow up the stem. The stem-leaves are often bract-like and sheathing the stem.
The inflorescence is a variably dense raceme on an erect stem. The flowers are mostly resupinate (twisted), coloured green or white and green, rarely pink, orange, red or yellow. The floral bracts are usually narrow.
All the sepals are free, the lateral pair differing from the dorsal one and spreading wing-like. The median sepal usually forms a hood over the flower centre, joined by the lateral petals or their upper lobes.
The petals, simple or bilobed, are usually narrower than the median sepal. When bilobed, the lower lobes usually hang down, resembling the lateral lip lobes below them. Petal surfaces may be smooth, hairy, covered in papillae or wrinkled. The sometimes three-lobed lip is often adjacent to the gynostemium or column, sometimes fused to it and spurred.
The generic name, Habenaria, is derived from the Latin words, habena meaning strap and -aria meaning possessing, referring to the sometimes-long spur or the often-long petal and sepal lobes.
The gynostemium in the flower centre comprises the anthers that are often erect, a pair of pollinia with caudicles and viscidia, a three-lobed rostellum with arms and a stigma extended into two club-shaped processes.
The fruit capsule is ellipsoid or oblong and sometimes beaked.
There are about 800 Habenaria species throughout (mainly) the tropics, making the genus one of the biggest among the terrestrial orchids. Southern Africa is home to about 35 of the species. The bright red flowering habenarias do not occur in southern Africa.
The plant in picture is Habenaria kraenzliniana (Leistner, (Ed.), 2000; Pooley, 1998; Lowrey and Wright, 1987).