Disperis katangensis Summerh.

Glabrous herb, 5.5–14 cm. tall, arising from a hairy ellipsoid tuber 0.5-2 cm. long, 5–8 mm. wide.. Leaves 2–3(–4), alternate or rarely the lowest pair subopposite (but at least 1–2 leaves always distant), sessile, sheathing at the base, ovate or rounded-ovate, 0.9–2 cm. long, 0.7–1.8 cm. wide, acuminate or shortly apiculate at the apex, cordate and clasping the stem above the sheath, mostly purplish beneath, the venation mostly whitish.. Flowers solitary or in 2–4-flowered racemes, white to pinkish-mauve or purplish; bracts leaf-like, elliptic, 0.5–2 cm. long, 0.5–1.1 cm. wide, obtuse or acute.. Intermediate sepal linear, (0.7-)l.6-l.8 cm. long, joined to the petals to form an open but deeply concave, transversely boat-shaped or sometimes almost hemispherical hood, 0.7–1.5 cm. long, 0.8–1.8 cm. wide (not opened out flat), mostly pinkish or greenish with mauve lines and often a yellow pattern at the back; lateral sepals elliptic or almost semicircular, 0.85–1.7 cm. long, 5.5–10 mm. wide, obliquely apiculate at the apex, joined for about a quarter to a third of their length, bearing small sacs 0.3–0.5 mm. long.. Petals oblong-elliptic, ovate or semicircular, narrowed at both ends, 0.7–1.7 cm. long, 0.7–1.1 cm. wide.. Lip mostly yellowish, ± 7.5–10 mm. long, with claw sharply bent back on itself near base and there dilated into a densely papillate appendage, which is typically large, reniform and apically emarginate, 2.5–3.5 mm. long, 4 mm. wide, but varying to deeply 2-lobed; claw terminating in a spathulate, elliptic or almost circular limb bearing a papillate crest or spur.. Fig. 39/1, p. 220.