I January 2008 I had the opportunity to 
make a short visit to South Africa on my 
way to the World Orchid Conference in 
Miami, Florida USA. While there, I spent 
a few days looking for orchids around 
Johannesburg and the high altitude grass- 
lands of Mpumalanga State in the north- 
east. Summer is the rainy season for much 
of South Africa, and a time when many ter- 
restrial orchids are in flower. This article is 
the first of a two-part series on the orchids 
I saw on this trip, and covers species in the 
genus Eulophia seen in flower. 
The genus Eulophia comprises over 250 
species distributed throughout the tropics 
of Africa, Asia, western Pacific and the 
Americas. Africa is particularly rich in 
Eulophia, and South Africa has about 40 
species, which are amongst the showiest 
summer-flowering terrestrial orchids there. 
Species of Eulophia are short to tall grow- 
ing, mostly terrestrial orchids. Some 
species are seasonally deciduous, others 
carry leaves throughout the year, and a few 
are leafless. Leaves, if present, are in a fan- 
shaped array and are long, narrow to broad, 
and distinctly ribbed. Most species have a 
long bulbous rhizome, while some have 
pseudobulbs. The flowering stem varies 
from a short, erect raceme to a branched 
arching inflorescence that can reach sev- 
eral metres in length. In some species, the 
inflorescence emerges from the ground a 
short distance away from the leaves. 
Flowers are small to large, with the sepals 
incurved to spreading outward, and the 
petals often partially enclosing the label- 
lum. The labellum is usually broad and is 
variously adorned with ridges and bristles 
along its length. Many species have rela- 
tively large showy flowers, while several 
species appear to be self-pollinating, with 
small, poorly-opening, short-lived flowers. 
The first Eulophia I saw were growing 
in a small grassland reserve just metres 
from a major freeway in the suburbs of 
Johannesburg. There was a single plant of 
Eulophia adenoglossa which has greenish, 
poorly-opening, short-lived, self-pollinat- 
ing flowers. The reserve also held large 
numbers of Eulophia ovalis subsp. baine- 
sii, a very showy orchid with pale yellow 
and green flowers to 3cm across, and up to 
20 flowers on the inflorescence. It is a 
sequentially flowering species, and gener- 
ally only 2-4 flowers were open at once. 
I then travelled east to Nelspruit, and 
saw Eulophia petersii growing on granite 
rocks in the hills near the town. This 
species grows in quite harsh, exposed sit- 
uations (often with Aloe species), and has 
pseudobulbs and a branched inflorescence 
to 2m long carrying dozens of brownish 
flowers with a white and pink labellum. 
Near Nelspruit, in a roadside drain, 
Eulophia angolensis was growing. This is 
Eulophia clavicornis var. nutans Dullstroom 
The Australian Orchid Review, June/July 2009 
