!Chysis aurea Lindley 1837
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
Drawing by © Dunsterville & Garay
to
Common Name The Golden Chysis
Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru as a large sized, pendulous, warm to cool growing, epiphytic or semi-terrestrial orchid that is found in dense shade in humid forests and palm thickets at 700 to 1700 meters in elevation with elongate, fusiform-clavate, many noded, compressed pseudobulbs carrying many towards the apice, distichous, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, undulate, membraneous leaves that blooms in the summer with a pendulous to arching, robust, 12" [30 cm] long, racemose inflorescence with ovate, acuminate, concave bracts that carries up to 12 waxy, fragrant, long-lived, color variable flowers and arises basally as a new pseudobulb growth appears.
Please notice that there are 5 calli on the lip, 3 white and 2 orange. This is the distinguishing character of this species. If your flower has only three calli then go to C tricostata.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lan
kester's Epidendra Website CR;
* Edwards's Bot. Reg. 23: sub t. 1937. 1837
Edwards's Bot. Reg. 23: sub t. 1937. 1837 Drawing fide;
The Orchids of Mexico and Guatemala Bateman 1843 as Chysis laevis drawing fide;
Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915;
Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing fide;
Orchids of Panama Williams 1946 as C aurea var maculata = C bruennowiana;
Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1953
Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1953 drawing fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 27 # 5 1958 drawing fide;
Venezuelan Orchids Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 drawing fide;
Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 1 1970;
AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 2 1970 as C laevis;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing fide;
Las Orquedeas de El Salvador Hamer vol 1 1974 drawing fide/photo ok;
AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 5 1979 ;
Orquídea (Mexico City), n.s., 7[3]: 1979;
Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide;
Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 as Chysis laevis drawing ok/photo fide;
Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 15 881 - 944 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1984;
The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992 photo fide;
An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992;
Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb & Laurent 1992;
Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993;
Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995;
Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide;
Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2001;
Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005;
Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo not = C limminghei;
Algunas Orquideas de Mexico Tomo 1 Suarez 2013 photo fide;
AOS Bulletin Vol 84 #8 2015 photo fide;
Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing fide/photo ok;
Materials to the Orchid Flora of Colombia Vol IV:358 Szlatchetko & Kolanowska 2023 drawing fide
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