Disa baurii

Disa baurii, sometimes called the grassveld blue disa and in Afrikaans the bloumoederkappie (blue mother bonnet), is a terrestrial orchid growing from a tuberous rootstock to about 25 cm in height.

The leaves grow mainly at the base of the flower stem, but a few smaller ones occur up the stem and sheathing it. The basal leaves, between five and ten of them, are usually produced after flowering. They are narrowly linear, stiff and grass-like, up to 30 cm long and 2 cm wide.

The species distribution is in the eastern parts of the country, from the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal to Mpumalanga and Limpopo, as well as across the border into some neighbouring countries including Lesotho, eSwatini and as far as Malawi and Tanzania.

The habitat is coastal to montane grassland, growing at altitudes up to 1500m. This region receives summer rain. The habitat population is deemed of least concern early in the twenty first century (iNaturalist; iSpot; http://orchids.wikia.com; www.zimbabweflora.co.zw; http://redlist.sanbi.org).