Cyrtopodium saintlegerianum Rchb. f. 1885 Photo by © Welton Carvalho

Flower Closeup Photo by © Patricia Harding

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Common Name Saint Leger's Cyrtopodium [French botanist in Brazil later 1800's]

Flower Size 1.6" [4 cm]

Found in in Mato Grosso Brazil as a large sized epiphyte with with erect to slightly reclining, cylindrical below becoming fusiform above, enveloped by imbricating sheaths that become flared apically pseudobulbs carrying distichous, rigid, linear-lanceolate, acuminate, attenuate and somewhat canaliculate blow into the base leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on an erect, shorter than the leaves, paniculate, many branched, many flowered inflorescence with undulate to crisped margins, more or less lanceolate, red shadowed, floral bracts

Certainly related to and often cited as a synonym of C punctatum but it differs in its epiphytic habit, different colored flowers, and flower structure and its geographical location as it only comes from central Brazil while C punctatum occurs in the USA, Centraql America, Colombia and Venezuela.

Synonyms Cyrtopodium punctatum var. saintlegerianum (Rchb.f.) Stein 1892

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VI 97 - 114 1942 Hoehne 1942; Orchidaceae Brasilenses Band 1 1Pabst & Dungs 1975 drawing good; AOS Bulletin Vol 64 #9 1995 photo fide; Orchids of The Brazilian Central Plateau Menezes 2004 photo fide; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide

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