Encyclia fragrans [Swartz] Lemee 1955 Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

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Common Name The Fragrant Encyclia

Flower Size 1 1/2" [3.75 cm]

Collected in Jamaica in the cooler west central mountains where it blooms in summer on an apical, erect, short to 5" [to 10 cm], few to several [3 to 10] flowered, racemose, shorter than the leaves inflorescence arising on a newly matured pseudobulb subtended by a large basal bract and is quite fragrant [honey and Vanilla]. They also are found from Central America through Northern South America and the West Indies in lowland tropical rainforests to lower montane forests up to 2000 meters in altitude with cylindric to fusiform, narrowly ovoid pseudobulbs with basal bracts that become papery with age and a single, coriaceous, ligulate oblong to narrowly elliptic-lanceolate, obtuse leaf which blooms mostly in the winter and spring, but is possible in all seasons with a well grown plant. It grows best mounted on wood with cool to warm temperatures and is medium in size.

Synonyms Anacheilium fragrans (Sw.) Acuña 1938; Epidendrum cochleatum Curtiss; Epidendrum cordatum Ruiz & Pav. 1798; *Epidendrum fragrans Sw. 1788; Epidendrum fragrans var. ionoleucum Hoffm. ex Barb Rod 1881; Epidendrum fragrans var. magnum Stein. 1892; Epidendrum fragrans var. pachupus Schlechter 1922; Epidendrum ionoleucum Hoffm. ex Rchb.f 1852; Epidendrum lineatum G. Salisb. 1796; Epidendrum vaginatum Sesse & Mocino 1894; Hormidium fragran [Sw] Brieger 1961; Prosthechea fragrans (Sw.) W. E. Higgins 1997

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