Coelogyne fuscescens Lindl. 1830 SECTION Fuscescentes Pfitzer & Kraenzlin TYPE for the section
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Photo courtesy of Carl Withner
Common Name The Ocher Yellow Coelogyne - In China He Chun Bei Mu Lan
Flower Size 1 3/8" to 2.4" [3.5 to 6 cm]
Found in Nepal, India, Sikkim, Bhutan, lower Myanmar, China and northeastern Thailand on mossy branches in damp, shady hill forests and lower montane forests at elevations of 600 to 2100 meters as a medium to large sized, warm to cold growing, creeping epiphyte with erect, clustered, cylindric-fusiform, deeply grooved with age pseudobulbs carrying 2 apical, oblanceolate to oblong-elliptic, acute, plicate, 6 nerved, gradually narrowing below in to the short petiolate base leaves that blooms in the fall and winter on an erect to suberect, 6 3/8" [16 cm] long, slightly fractiflex rachis, 2 to 10 flowered inflorescence arising with a newly emerging pseudobulb growth that is subtended by 4 to 5 short, imbricating sheaths and has deciduous floral bracts and simultaneously opening flowers.
CAUTION:There is a var. brunnea [Lindley] Lindley which now is known as Coelogyne brunnea that differs from this species by having a brown-marked lip with an acute midlobe and occurs in Thailand, Myanmar, Laos and Vietnam, There also is a variety integrilabia that has almost no side lobes to the lip and is most likely pink, and a variety viridiflora that differs by having smaller to 2" [5 cm] green flowers.
Synonyms Coelogyne fuscescens var. integrilabia Pfitzer 1907; Coelogyne fuscescens var. viridiflorum Pradhan 1979; Coelogyne integrilabia (Pfitzer) Schltr. 1915; Pleione fuscescens (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/1995; The Orchids of Sikkim-Himalaya Part 1 King & Pantling 1898 drawing fide; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; The Orchids of Thailand Seidenfaden & Smitinand 1959 drawing fide; Dansk Botanisk Arkiv Bind 29 N.R. 4 Orchid Genera in Thailand III Seidenfaden 1975 drawing fide; Dansk Botanisk Arkiv Bind 29 N.R. 4 Orchid Genera in Thailand Seidenfaden 1975 as C intergrilabia drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 47 No 7 1978; Indian Orchids, Guide to Identification and Culture vol 2 Pradhan 1979; Indian Orchids, Guide to Identification and Culture vol 2 Pradhan 1979 as C fuscescens var viridiflorum; AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 1 1984; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 15 881 - 944 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1984 drawing ok; Orchids of Arunachal Pradesh Hegde 1984 photo ok; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992 drawing fide; Orchids of Nagaland Deorani & Naithani 1995; Beautiful Orchids of Nepal Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002 photo fide; The Genus Coelogyne A Synopsis, D A Clayton 2002 photo fide; 100 Sikkim Himalayan Orchids Pradhan 2005 photo fide; Orchids of India A Glimpse Misra 2007; ; Orchid Digest Vol 72 #2 2008 photo fide; Flora of China Vol 25 Zhengyi, Raven & Deyuan 2009; Les Coelogynes E & J George 2011 photo fide; Atlas of Native Orchids of China Vol 1 Jin Xiaohua, Li Jianwu and Ye Deping 2019 photo fide;
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