''Brachycorythis kalbreyeri'' is a species of flowering plant in the family

Orchidaceae Orchids are plants that belong to the family Orchidaceae (), a diverse and widespread group of flowering plants with blooms that are often colourful and fragrant. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering ...

. It is endemic to

Equatorial Africa Equatorial Africa is an ambiguous term that sometimes is used to refer either to the equatorial region of Sub-Saharan Africa traversed by the Equator, more broadly to tropical Africa or in a biological and geo-environmental sense to the intra- ...

and was first discovered on

Mount Cameroon Mount Cameroon is an active volcano in the South West region of Cameroon next to the city of Buea near the Gulf of Guinea. Mount Cameroon is also known as Cameroon Mountain or Fako (the name of the higher of its two peaks) or by its indigenous n ...

Guillermo Kalbreyer Wilhelm (Guillermo) Kalbreyer (1847–1912) was a German plant collector who was sent by James Veitch & Sons of Chelsea, London to collect new plants in West Africa and South America. According to Hortus Veitchii, the Veitch family history: Guille ...

. It was subsequently named after Kalbreyer by

Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach (Dresden, 3 January 1823 – Hamburg, 6 May 1889) was a botanist and the foremost German orchidologist of the 19th century. His father Heinrich Gottlieb Ludwig Reichenbach (author of ''Icones Florae Germanicae et Helv ...

. The species is unique from others in its genus due to its semi-epiphytic growth habit. Most species in the genus ''

Brachycorythis ''Brachycorythis'' is a genus of flowering plants from the orchid family, Orchidaceae. It contains approximately 40-50 species native mostly to Africa and Madagascar but also some from South and East Asia (India, Thailand, China, etc.). Specie ...

'' are terrestrial. ''Brachycorythis kalbreyeri'', however, can be found growing on trees near streams, on fallen logs, or mossy tree branches. During the

dry season The dry season is a yearly period of low rainfall, especially in the tropics. The weather in the tropics is dominated by the tropical rain belt, which moves from the northern to the southern tropics and back over the course of the year. The te ...

, the species loses its leaves. When the wet season returns the species sends out new growth and eventually flowers. The flowers are 5 cm across and the species can produce up to about 15 flowers. The sepals of the flower are white and the petals have a purplish color over a white background. The lip shares this coloration except that towards the column the lip changes to a bright shade of yellow. The flowers produce a spicy scent.

References

* * {{Taxonbar, from=Q4953383 Orchids of Cameroon Flora of West Tropical Africa Flora of West-Central Tropical Africa Flora of East Tropical Africa Flora of Zambia Plants described in 1878 Orchideae