Ancistrochilus rothschildianus O'Brien 1907 Photo courtesy of © Lourens Grobler.

Another Flower Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

Flower Closeup Photo courtesy of Danny Lentz

plant in situ Cameroon Photos by Vincent Droissart and His West African Orchid Website

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Common Name or Meaning Rothschild's Ancistrochilus

Flower Size 2" to 3" [5.5 cm]

A sympodial, epiphytic plant, with pseudobulbs that look like Hershey's kisses. It is a cool to hot grower from Guinea, Sierra Leone and across to Uganda on bare trunks and larger branches of large forest trees at elevations of 500 to 1100 meters that can be potted and watered regularly while growing and less when not. This small to medium sized epiphyte has clustered, conical or pyriform pseudobulbs with 2 apical, lanceolate to elliptic lanceolate or oblanceolate, acute or acuminate, broad, thin textured leaves and blooms on a basal, arching, to 8" long, pubescent inflorescence, from from the base of the leafed or leafless pseudobulb and can carry 2 to 5, large, fragrant flowers occuring in the winter, summer and fall.

Synonyms Ancistrochilus thomsonianus var. gentilii De Wild. 1903; Ancistrochilus hirsutissimus Kraenzl. 1914 ; Pachystoma rothschildiana (O'Brien) Sander 1927

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 2 1979 photo; Flora of Tropical East Africa Orchidaceae Part 2 Cribb 1984; Simon & Schuster's Guide to Orchids Fanfani & Rossi 1988; Miniature Orchids Northern 1988; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Laurent 1992; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchds Pridgeon 1992; AOS Bulletin Vol 62 No 2 1993 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 63 No 7 1994 drawing; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; AOS Bulletin Vol 69 No 10 2000 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 71 No 2 2002 photo; Flora's Orchids Nash and La Croix 2005; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glenn 2002; African Orchids in the wild and Cultivation La Croix 1997; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 9 2007 photo

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