Catasetum imperiale L. Linden & Cogn. 1895 SUBGENUS Catasetum SECTION Catasetum
Side View Of Flower Photo by © David Jubineau and His Bulbophyllum Pages Copyright ©
Female Flower Photo by © Lourens Grobler
LATE
Common Name The Large Flowered Catasetum
Flower Size 4" [10 cm]
Found in Venezuela and Peru? at elevations of 1100 to 2100 meters as a cool growing epiphyte with fusiform, slightly compressed pseudobulbs carrying up to 10 dark green, plicate, elliptic-lanceolate, leaves that blooms in the late spring on a basal, 14" [35 cm] long, ascending and then pendant, racemose, several [8] flowered inflorescence arising on a partially developed pseudobulb.
Once thought to be a variety of Catasetum pileatum but has now been given species status, it could possibly be a natural hybrid between C pileatum and C macrocarpum but it has not been reproduced artificially as yet.
Kew at this time puts this species as a synonym of C pileatum but I have left it separate at this time.
Synonyms Catasetum bungerothii var imperiale [Linden & Cogn.] Cogn. 1897; Catasetum pileatum Rchb. f. var imperiale Hoehne 1942; Catasetum × splendens var. imperiale (L.Linden & Cogn.) Rolfe 1895
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VI Hoehne 1942 as C pileatum var imperiale; The World Of Catasetum Holtz 1999 photo fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 68 No 1 2003 photo; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 80 #4 2016 photo fide;
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