Cyrtochilum gargantua (Rchb. f.) Kraenzl. 1917 SECTION Eucyrtochilum Kranzlin Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website

Another Flower Photo by © Guido Deburghgraeve

Common Name The Dreadful Cyrtochilum

Flower Size 2.6" [6.5 cm]

Found in Ecuador and southern Peru at elevations around 2900 meters as a large sized, cold growing epiphyte or terrestrial with pear-shaped, laterally compressed, ancipitous, longitudinally grooved pseudobulbs partially enveloped by several pairs of distichous, imbricating, leafless below, leaf-bearing above sheaths and carrying 2, apical, slender, acute, erect to arching, strap-shaped, conduplicate below into the short narrow petiole-like base that blooms in the fall on a axillary, to 96" [to 250 cm], stout, climbing, loosely paniculate, many flowered inflorescence with many fractiflex, 8.4" [21 cm] long, loosely 7 flowered branches spaced 6" [15 cm] apart.

Synonyms Cyrtochilum bismarckii ( D.E.Benn. & Christenson ) Senghas 2001; Oncidium bismarckii D.E.Benn. & Christenson 1998; Oncidium gargantua Rchb. f. 1876

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Das Pflanzenreich Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1922 drawing fide; Orchids of Peru Vol 4 Schweinfurth 1961 as Oncidium gargantua; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 1 1998 photo fide; Lindleyana Vol 16 No 2 2001; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 44-45 pg 2763 - 2898 Brieger 2001 as C bismarckii; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2002 drawing fide; Orchid Digest Vol 60 No 2 1996 photo fide; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium/Odontoglossum alliance Bakers 2006; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 75 #4 2011 Photo fide;

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------