CJB - African plant database

Terrestrial herb, very robust, 0,5-3 m tall; rhizome mostly subterranean, fleshy, 4-6 cm long, 2-3 cm Ø, with fleshy white roots; leaves 3-5 in a tuft, evergreen, long-petiolate, lanceolate, 30-250x2-15 cm, acuminate, ribbed, dark green; inflorescence 1-3 m tall, peduncle c. 6 cm Ø, with 3-5 tubular sheaths; raceme long, 5-50-flowered; bracts elliptic-obovate, 20-30 mm long, usually brown and withered at anthesis; pedicel and ovary 20-40 mm long; flowers large, fleshy, heavily scented, glossy olive-green and purplish or purple brown (sepals), petals (purple-)pink, lip green and purple(-veined) with dull white crests; sepals erect, oblanceolate, 12-29x7-10 mm; petals ovate, 20-35x10-23 mm, lying over column; lip 20-45 mm long, 14-40 mm wide, 3-lobed, with 3 lines of fringed lamellae running down the centre for the basal 2/3; side lobes erect, rounded; mid-lobe rectangular, 11-20x10-13 mm, margins undulate; spur conical, 3-10 mm long; column club-shaped, stout, 10-20 mm long; fruit pendent, ellipsoid, 30-65 mm long.

Ecology :	Riverine forest and forest edges; amongst bracken at margin of stream bank forest; wet meadows at edge of gallery forest; wooded meadows; swampy and spongy areas, wet places, bogs, marshes; by streams, rivers, lakes; dambos; base of mountain slopes; secondary forest; fallow; usually but not always in heavy shade; 0-2600 m alt.
	“Very variable in both stature and flower size but this variation seems to be more or less continuous and does not warrant taxonomic recognition…” (Fl. Trop. E. Afr., Orchid. 3: 430, 1989).
	Bioko/Fernando Poo; Botswana, S. Africa (E coast).
	May be distinguished from other Eulophia species by its flowers with tall crenulate lamellae on lip.
	Cultivated for its spectacular flowers. L. horsfalli “originally flowered in the collection of J. B. Horsfall, Esq. in 1864”. It can be grown “on the edge of a pond, but also will thrive in rich soil, if watered well; the compost must be well drained” (Piers, 1968: 180). For cultivation, see, e.g.: Bellone in Orchidées, Cult. & Protection 24 bis: 18, 1996; Fibeck in Orchidee Hamburg 52/3: insert, 2001; Abel in Orchids S. Afr. 42/1: 62-65, 2011; all with photographs. Seeds have been used for symbiotic germination in Kenya (Ochora & al. in Syst. Geogr. Pl. 71: 585-596, 2002).