Catasetum bergoldianum Foldats 1968
Plant and Female Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl
Common Name Bergold's Catasetum [German Orchid Enthusiast in Venezuela late 1900's]
Flower Size male .8" [2 cm] female 1.2" [3 cm]
Found in Venezuela in lowlands on granote outcrops at elevations of 50 to 400 meters as a large sized, hot to warm growing lithophyte or terrestrial related to C ochraceum that blooms in the late summer fall on a newly arising growth with an erect, thick, 18" [45 cm] long, few flowered female inflorescence. The pictured flower is a female flower and it is a bit past it's prime. The orchid has fusiform pseudobulbs enveloped completely by leaf-bearing sheaths and carrying plicate, subcoriaceous, oblanceolate, acute to shorly acuminate, articulated to the leaf sheaths below, 3 nerved leaves. Related to Catasetum ochraceum which occcurs in a much higher elevations mainly 400 to 1700 meters and differs primarily in the height and depth of the labellum [5:4 instead of 2:3] and the divergent antennae and the much longer [over 1/2"] antenna length as well as the much narrower [3/8"] petals.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 4 1970; AOS Bulletin Vol 63 No 8 1994; The World of Catasetum Holst 1999
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