Cymbidium suave R. Brown 1810 SECTION Austrocymbidium Schlechter 1924
Close up of flowers Photo byNeville DeLaRue
Plant in situ with inflorescence
Plant in situ with inflorescence Photos by John Pacewicz
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LATE
EARLY
Common Name Refers to being soft, gentle, mild, or mild smelling ? which one? - In Australia The Grassy Boat-Lip Orchid
Flower Size 3/4" to 1 1/4" [2 to 3 cm]
Found in coastal Queensland and New South Wales Australia as a large to giant sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte that is found at elevations of sealevel to 1350 meters in decaying heartwood of Eucalyptus trees without pseudobulbs and has a thin, woody stem enveloped by leaf sheath bases and carrying 6 to 11, thin textured, distichous, ligulate, arching, obtuse to subacute leaves. It flowers from late winter though early summer on a basal, arching to pendant, 6 to 14" [15 to 35 cm] long, racemose many [40] flowered inflorescence with sweetly fragrant, closely set flowers.
This species is often found in conjunction with ants and may benefit from their presence
Synonyms Cymbidium gomphocarpum Fitz.
References W3 Tropicos Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 26 No 3 1957; AOS Bulletin Vol 26 No 3 1957 as C gomphocarpum; AOS Bulletin Vol 26 No 11 1957 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 29 No 11 1960 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 35 No 4 1966; AOS Bulletin Vol 37 No 2 1968 photo fide; Orchids of Australia Nicholls 1969 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 5 1979 photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 25 1520 - 1584 Brieger 1991 photo good; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 73 No 8 2004; Australian Orchid Review Vol 71 No 5 2006 photo; Native Orchids of Australia Jones 2006 photo fide; The Genus Cymbidium Du Puy & Cribb 2007 photo/drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 80 #2 2016; AOS Bulletin Supplement Cymbidiums Vol 87 #10 2018 photo fide;
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