Maxillaria grandiflora [H.B.K.] Lindl. 1832
Photo by © Jay Pfahl - Plant in situ Jardin Colomiba 2800 meters 1/2016
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Alexander Hirtz
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Common Name The Large-Flowered Maxillaria
Flower Size to 4" [to 10 cm]
Found from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil? and Venezuela? in higher elevation cloud forests from elevations of 2000 to 3200 meters on steep slopes in cloud forests as a small to medium sized, cold to warm growing, epiphytic or rupicolus species with ovoid, compressed, sulcate pseudobulbs enveloped basally by several, imbricate, leaf bearing sheaths carrying a single, apical, narrowly oblong-ligulate, conduplicate basally, thin-textured leaf that blooms in the late spring and early summer with a basal, 4 to 5" [10 to 12.5 cm] long, single flowered inflorescence arising on a mature, unifoliate pseudobulb and is almost completely enveloped by several, overlapping, compressed, loose, acute bracts from which arise a scented, long-lasting flower held amid the leaves.
The photo by Jay Pfahl above may not be M grandiflora as the lip has the apical laminiae to the lip margin, but the species is said to be quite variable so..... There is a lot of debate about this species and if it is only one or several distinct species, or highly variable even within a single area, see my photos from the Jardin area above.
Similar to Maxillaria augustae-victoriae, M christensonii M colombiana, M crispiloba, M dichroma, M x doucetiana, M eburnea, M elegantula, M fletcheriana, M fucata, M grandis, M irrorata, M lehmannii, M macropoda, M sanderiana and Maxillaria turkeliae
Synonyms Broughtonia grandiflora [HBK]Sprengel 1826; Callista grandiflora (Kunth) Kuntze 1891; *Dendrobium grandiflorum H.B.K. 1816; Lycaste farinosa Kraenzl. 1920; Lycaste grandiflora [H.B.K.] Beer 1854; Maxillaria amesiana hort. 1891; Maxillaria grandiflora var alba Rolfe 1897; Maxillaria grandiflora var amesiana Horth. 1893; Maxillaria grandiflora var stenantha Rchb.f 1856;
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1855; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1856 as M grandiflora var stenantha; Otia Botanica Hamburgensia Rchb.f 1878; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VII 115-147 Hoehne 1953 as M grandiflora var alba; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VII 115-147 Hoehne 1953 as M grandiflora var amesiana; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VII 115-147 Hoehne 1953 as M grandiflora var stenantha; AOS Bulletin Vol 28 No 7 1959 photo fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 5 Dunsterville & Garay 1966 not = M auguste-victoriae; Flora de VenezuelaVolumen XV Part 4 Foldats 1970 drawing hmm; Orquideologia Vol 12 No 3/4 1977/8 photo; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 not = M auguste-victoriae; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 12 1980 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 454 Dodson 1982 drawing ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 54 No 1 1985 photo not =?; Orchids Travel By Air A Pictoral Safari Mulder, Mulder-Roelfsema and Schuiteman 1990 photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 3 COS 1991 photo not; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 drawing fide; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 28 1713 - 1776 Brieger 1993; Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 28 1713 - 1776 Brieger 1993 as M eburnea; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen lieferung 29 1777 - 1840 Brieger 1994 as Lycaste farinosa; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 8 1998 as M amesiana photo fide; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 Dodson 2002 drawing ok/photo hmm; Orquideologia Vol 22 #3 2003 Photo fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Las Orquideas del Peru Bezverhov 2011 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 85 #10 2016 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 81 #2 2017 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 # 6 2019 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 #8 2019 Drawing fide;
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