Aerangis brachycarpa (A.Rich.) Durand & Schinz

Stem woody, upright or pendent, up to 20 cm. long but usually much shorter, bearing greyish roots 5–6 mm. in diameter.. Leaves 4–12, alternate, usually distichous, 5–12 mm. apart, obovate or spathulate, up to 25 cm. long, 2–6 cm. wide near the apex, with a sheathing base and unequally bilobed apex, the lobes rounded or acute, the longer up to 12 mm. long, fleshy or leathery in texture, dark green and often black-dotted, margins entire.. Inflorescences axillary racemes, arching or pendent, up to 40 cm. long, bearing 2–12 flowers; peduncle terete up to 10 cm. long, 3 mm. in diameter, bearing 2–3 tight sheaths; rhachis slightly zigzag, gradually tapering, greyish green, black-dotted; bracts triangular, acute, up to 9 mm. long, enclosing a small outgrowth of the rhachis 1–2 mm. long.. Flowers in 2 rows, 1.5–3.5 cm. apart, pale green when first opening, becoming white, and often with a pink or brownish tinge in the petals and spur, tepals often with the margins recurved so that they appear very narrow; pedicel with ovary straight or arching, 3.5–7 cm. long.. Tepals all narrowly lanceolate, acuminate, 20–45 mm. long, 4–8 mm. wide near the base; dorsal sepal erect, lateral sepals and petals becoming sharply reflexed within a few days of the flowers opening.. Lip deflexed, 5–10 mm. wide near the base, narrowing gradually or abruptly at a point about one-third from the tip to a slender acumen.. Spur straight or slightly curved, pendulous, gradually tapering towards the tip which is sometimes minutely bifid, 12–20 cm. long.. Column slender, terete below, dilated above, 6–8 mm. long; androclinium sloping; rostellum porrect; pollinia oboval-kidney shaped, viscidium heart-shaped.. Fruit a slender capsule up to 20 cm. long.