Plant and Flowers Photo by © Lourens Grobler

To THROUGH

Common Name Curnow's Aerangis [English Cultivator of species 1800's]

Flower Size 1" to 1 1/4" [2.5 to 3.5 cm]

Found in the Imerina region of northwestern Madagascar at elevations below 1400 meters as a miniature sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with almost no stem and carrying bluntly to acutely bilobed, brownish, leathery, generally glossy, often covered with tiny greyish dotted leaves that are then trimmed along the margins with more brown color. The roots of this species are distinct because they are flattened, grey, finely warty, and have amber to copper colored root tips. This species blooms in the mid summer to fall on an axillary, 2 3/4" to 3 1/4" [7 to 8 cm] long, 1 to 2 flowered inflorescence giving rise to flowers that have a spur that in bud forms a perfect circle but as the flower opens it straightens out to a half curve and eventually appears to be "S" shaped and is 4 to 5 1/4" [10 to 13 cm] long. Mount this orchid on cork or treefern and drench almost daily, fertilize weekly and give it deep shade.

Synonyms *Rhaphidorhynchus curnowianus Finet 1907

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/81; The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchds Pridgeon 1982; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 8 1986; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 11 1986 photo; Rudolph Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1B lieferung 16/17/18 945-1128 Brieger 1985 photo ok; An Introduction to the Cultivated Angraecoid Orchids of Madagascar Hillerman & Holst 1986 as Aerangis curnowiana drawing/photo fide; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 2 1998 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 73 no 9 2004 photo;

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