Habenaria malacophyllaRchb.f.

WFO wfo-0000978100 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC BY-SA

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 1 observation

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 1 time, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Habenaria malacophylla, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. a Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / 2022-03-03 / obs. 181450524
Habenaria malacophylla, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. b Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 181450536
Habenaria malacophylla, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. c Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 181450547
Habenaria malacophylla, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. d Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 181450559
Habenaria malacophylla, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. e Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 181450574
Habenaria malacophylla, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. f Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 181450587
Habenaria malacophylla, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. g Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 181450602
Habenaria malacophylla, photographed by Antoinette Eyssell Knox
fig. h Antoinette Eyssell Knox, CC BY-SA 4.0 / obs. 181450634

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 26 botanical countries

Regions where Habenaria malacophylla is native: Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Provinces, DR Congo, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gabon, Guinea, Gulf of Guinea Is., Kenya, KwaZulu-Natal, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Northern Provinces, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Sudan-South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Oman, Yemen AngolaBurundiCameroonCape ProvincesDR CongoEritreaEswatiniEthiopiaGabonGuineaGulf of Guinea Is.KenyaKwaZulu-NatalMalawiMozambiqueNigeriaNorthern ProvincesRwandaSierra LeoneSudan-South SudanTanzaniaUgandaZambiaZimbabweOmanYemen
Native distribution of Habenaria malacophylla, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Angola ANG AFRICA
Burundi BUR
Cameroon CMN
Cape Provinces CPP
DR Congo ZAI
Eritrea ERI
Eswatini SWZ
Ethiopia ETH
Gabon GAB
Guinea GUI
Gulf of Guinea Is. GGI
Kenya KEN
KwaZulu-Natal NAT
Malawi MLW
Mozambique MOZ
Nigeria NGA
Northern Provinces TVL
Rwanda RWA
Sierra Leone SIE
Sudan-South Sudan SUD
Tanzania TAN
Uganda UGA
Zambia ZAM
Zimbabwe ZIM
Oman OMA ASIA-TEMPERATE
Yemen YEM

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Also published as 4 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Habenaria holstii Kraenzl.
  • Habenaria holstii Kraenzl. ex Engl.
  • Habenaria polyantha Kraenzl.
  • Habenaria pulla Schltr.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.