Cynorkis lowiana Rchb. f. 1888 SECTION Lowiorchis
Photo by © Lourens Grobler
Photos by © Labat and Mobot Madagascar Photo List
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Common Name Low's Cynorkis [English Orchid Gardener and collector 1800's]
Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]
Found in eastern Madagascar in humid evergreen forests on shady trunks or moss covered rocks at elevations of 200 to 1200 meters as a small sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte with 2 elongate, villous, tubers carrying 2 sheaths, 1 short and the other elongate, brownish and tubular enveloping the base of a single, narrowly lanceolate-linear leaf which is slightly attenuate basally and longly attenuate apically that blooms at most any time of the year on a thin, 2.8" to 4.8" [7 to 12 cm] long, single [rarely 2] flowered inflorescence carrying large flowers .
Synonyms Cynorkis purpurascens Lindl. 1835; Cynosorchis lowiana Rchb.f 1888; Cynosorchis purpurascens Lindl. 1835
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915 as Cynosorchis lowii; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/83 as Cynosorchis lowiana drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 5 257- 320 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1974 photo fide; The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 11 2005 photo fide; Orchids of Madagascar Hermans, Du Puy, Cribb & Bosser 2007 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 78 #3 2009 photo fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Madagascar Cribb & Herman 2009 photo fide; Les Orchidees de Madagascar Bosser & Lecoufle 2015 photo fide; A la Recherche des Orchidees de Madagascar Hervouet 2018 photo fide;
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