Plant and Flower

Photo by © Karl Senghas and The Swiss Orchid Foundation at the Jany Renz Herbaria Website

Old Flower

Photo by © Patricia Harding

Common Name The Diamond-Shaped Lip Cyrtidiorchis

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in wet montane forests at elevations around 2000 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with two growth habits, the first has caespitose growths with pseudobulbs and roots and the second is a branching stem without roots and pseudobulbs. The pseudobulbs are ovoid and lightly compressed and carry two, oblong ligulate, obtuse, conduplicate at the subpetiolate base leaves and giving rise to branched stems that have deciduous, foliaceous, oblong-ligulate, acute bracts for the entire length, and persistent sheathing bracts that blooms in the spring on an axillary, .8" [2 cm] long, subsessile, single flowered inflorescence enveloped by several lanceolate, acuminate bracts.

Synonyms *Chrysocycnis rhomboglossum F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899; Chrysocycnis triptera Schltr. 1920; Cyrtidiorchis triptera (Schltr.) Rauschert 1982; Cyrtidium rhomboglossum (F.Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Schltr. 1924; Cyrtidium tripterum (Schltr.) Schltr. 1924

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Cyrtidium rhomboglossum; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Cyrtidium tripterum; Flora de Venezuela Volumen 15 Parte 4 Foldats 1970 as Cyrtidium rhomboglossum drawing fide; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 5 Dunsterrville & Garay 1972 as Cyrtidium rhomboglossum drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela ; An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 as Cyrtidium rhomboglossum drawing fide; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo ok Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 1 Dodson 1993 photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen lieferung 29 1777 - 1840 Brieger 1994 photo good; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 432 Bennett & Christenson 1998 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Flora of Ecuador #76 225 [2] Orchidacaeae AA - Cyrtidiorchis Dodson Luer 2005; Genera Orchidacearum Vol 5 Epidendroideae Part 2 Pridgeon, Cribb, Chase and Rasmusen 2009 drawing fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing/photo fide

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