Lycaste lanipes Lindl. 1843 - See also Lycaste ciliata (Ruiz & Pav.) Lindl. ex Rchb. f. 1856 Section Fimbriatae Photo by David Morris and Clackamas Orchids

Common Name or Meaning The Wooly Column Foot Lycaste

Flower Size 1 3/5" [4 cm]

Often put as a synonym of Lycaste fimbriata and Lycaste ciliata, this species occurs in Peru, Ecuador and Brazil in damp seasonal cloud forests at elevations around 2500 to 2600 meters as a large sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte or terrestrial on steep embankments, with a short rhizome carrying a large, broadly ovate, shallowly sulcate psedobulb carrying 2 apical, erect, thin, plicate, narrow leaf that is letiolate towards the base that blooms in the summer and fall in situ in Ecuador on an erect, few at once, 6" [15 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising on a mature leafed pseudobulb with waxy, fragrant, long-lasting flowers holding the flowers well below the leaves. Supposedly differs from L ciliata by having very narrow, drooping olive sepals and a 7 keeled callus.

Synonyms Lycaste mesochlaena Rchb. f. 1854; Maxillaria lanipes Ruiz & Pavon 1798

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 445 Dodson 1982; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 COS 2002;