Orchid Species: Summerhayesia rwandensis

ORIGIN: Found in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroons, Equatorial Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique as a medium sized, pendant, warm to cool growing, monopodial epiphyte in high rainfall woodlands and at the margins of evergreen forests at elevations of 640 to 1550 meters.

DESCRIPTION: Found in Ivory Coast, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Cameroons, Equatorial Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Islands, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Zaire, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique as a medium sized, pendant, warm to cool growing, monopodial epiphyte in high rainfall woodlands and at the margins of evergreen forests at elevations of 640 to 1550 meters with a long, pendant, often branched, leafy stem carrying distichous, linear to narrowly oblong, unequally and obtusely bilobed apically, rather fleshy, olive green leaves that are basally twisted as to all face the same direction that blooms in the fall on a 2 to 4 flowered, 1/4 to 5/8 [10 to 15 mm] long inflorescence arising from along the stem. This species is best accomodated by mounting on tree fern or cork as it is a pendant grower and needs warm to cool temperatures as well as moderate shade, ample water and fertilizer while in growth and a lessening as it matures and enters the resting season.

FLOWER SIZE: 1/2 inch [1.23 cm] -- information provided by Jay Pfahl, author of the Internet Orchid Species Encyclopedia (IOSPE).