the wiki. Disa pulchra is a fascinating plant
indeed and is a wonderful example
of one plant imitating another (Batesian mimicry).
In the wild D.pulchra
flowers at the same time and occupies the same
habitats as Watsonia
densiflora and indeed looks very similar when in
flower. The story goes
that pollinators attracted to the Watsonia flowers
mistakenly pollinate
the disas as well, but receive no pollen or nectar
rewards in return. As
far as is known the watsonias derive no benefit from
this relationship
at all, but the disas undoubtably do as sooner or
later the insects will
be fooled by other Disa flowers and
cross-pollination will take place.

I concur with your story of
the ollination of Disa pulchra. In the Amatola
mountains in the Eastern Cape there are two pink
subjects flowering together with Disa pulchra in
December - both of which fool me from a distance and
perhaps fool the pollinators. The one is Watsonia
amatolae, a local endemic related to W. desiflora
and the other is Dierama igneum - both are the same
height and the identical pink shade. You will
notice from the Wicki pictures two distinct forms of
Disa pulchra - the form on Mt. Kemp is quite
different in general shape to the Mt. Thomas form.