Common Name: The Helmut-Shaped Polystachya
Scented: yes
Light Requirements: partial shade
Temperature Requirements: intermediate to hot
Blooms: autumn
Flower Size: 4cm
Synonyms: Bulbophyllum galeatum Lindl. 1830; *Dendrobium galeatum Sw. 1805; Dendrorchis galeata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Graphorchis cucullata Kuntze 1891; Polystachya babilonii Geerinck 1987; Polystachya cucullata T. Durand & Schinz 1895; Polystachya galeata var. babilonii (Geerinck) Geerinck 1992; Polystachya gilletii De Wild. 1904; Polystachya grandiflora Lindl. 1839; Polystachya macrantha Lindl. ex Hook. 1839
Found in Cameroon, Congo, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Democratic Republic of the Congo and Angola in lowland and submontane evergreen forests at elevations of 400 to 1000 meters in full to dappled sun as a medium sized, hot growing epiphyte with cylindricl pseudobulbs forming small clumps carrying a single, apical, oblanceolate or strap shaped, leathery leaf that blooms on an erect, unbranched, 3 to 10" [8 to 25 cm] long, several flowered inflorescence with strongly scented flowers occuring in the fall in cultivation.
<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-0.5" lon="5.0" type="terrain" zoom="3" width="500" height="350" selector="no" controls="none"> 7.369722, 12.354722, Cameroon -0.228021, 15.827659, Congo -0.803689, 11.609444, Gabon 7.946527, -1.023194, Ghana 9.945587, -9.696645, Guinea 7.539989, -5.547080, Ivory Coast 6.428055, -9.429499, Liberia 9.081999, 8.675277, Nigeria 8.460555, -11.779889, Sierra Leone -4.038333, 21.758664, Democratic Republic of the Congo -11.202692, 17.873887, Angola </googlemap>