Bollea coelestis Rchb.f 1876 Photo by © Eric Hunt and His Orchid Website
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Common Name The Sky-Blue Bollea
Flower Size 3 to 4" [7.5 to 10 cm]
A Colombian and Ecuadorian tufted, epiphytic, small to medium sized, warm to cool growing orchid without psuedobulbs, occuring in extremely wet forests with a heavy night fog, that requires humid, shady well watered conditions, found at around 900 to 1900 meters, with 6 to 10, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate leaves arranged in a fan shape that blooms in the spring and summer on a stout, shorter than the leaves, 4 to 10" [10 to 25 cm] long, ascending, sheathed stalk with a solitary, fleshy, long-lived, fragrant flower that is best put in a basket so as to display the low held flowers to the best advantage.
Synonyms Pescatoria coelestis (Rchb.f.) Dressler 2005; Zygopetalum coeleste [Rchb.f]Rchb.f 1877
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1967; AOS Bulletin Vol 50 No 7 1981 photo; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1993; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Dodson 1980; Flora Brasilense Hoehne 1953; Orchidaceae Brasilensis Pabst & Dungs 1975; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 1 COS 1991; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2001; Illustrate Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1982; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb & Laurent 1982; Orquideologia Vol. 23 No 1 2004 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 12 2005 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 6 2006 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 10 2006 photo; Australian Orchid Review Vol 72 No 2 2007 photo; Huntleya and Related orchids Harding 2008 as Pescatoria coelestis
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