Cattleya aurantiaca [Bateman ex Lindley]P.N. Don 1840 SUBGENUS Circumvola SECTION Aurantiacae Withner 1989 Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

Yellow flower Form Photo courtesy of Patricia Harding

Flowering plant in situ, Central Mexico Photo courtesy of Eduoard Faria.

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Common Name Orange Cattleya

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

This stout, small to medium sized, epiphytic and occasional lithophytic species is found in El Salvador and Mexico at elevations of 300 to 1600 meters in tropical and lower mountain rain forests on exposed rocks, or on trees in areas of extreme heat and cold and it grows warm to cool with elongate, cylindric-fusiform, lightly compressed pseudobulbs carrying 2, apical, coiaceous, fleshy, elliptic to oblong lanceolate leaves with a rounded, retuse apex that flowers from late winter through spring on a terminal, 6 1/2" [16 cm] long, few to many [2 to 11] flowered, umbelliform inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb. This plant's flowers are the smallest in the genus and northern populations can self-pollinate which causes the flowers to not open fully. This species and C. skinneri naturally hybrid to create C. guatemalensis.

Synonyms Amalia aurantiaca (Bateman ex Lindl.) Heynh. 1846; Broughtonia aurea Lindl. 1840; *Epidendrum aurantiacum Batem. ex Lindley 1838; Epidendrum aureum Lindley 1853; Guarianthe aurantiaca (Bateman ex Lindl.) Dressler & W.E. Higgins 2003; Laelia aurantiaca (Bateman ex Lindl.) Beer 1854

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1862 as Epidendrum aurantiacum; AOS Bulletin Vol 29 No 2 1960; AOS Bulletin Vol 30 No 9 1961; Orchid Digest Vol 42 No 2 1978 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 5 1979 photo; Orchid Digest Vol 44 No 2 1980; AOS Bulletin Vol 49 No 6 1980 photo; AOS Bulletin vol 53 no 7 1984 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 1 1986 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 2 1998 photo; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2002; AOS Bulletin Vol 62 No 11 1993 photo; The Catttleya and Their Relatives Withner Vol 1 1998; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1987; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb and Laurent 1982; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 4 2003 photo; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005; An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1982; Growing Orchids Vol 2 Rentoul 1982; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 630 Hamer 1982; Flora Novo-Galaciana Vol 16 McVaugh 1985; Icones Orchidacearum I Plate 7 Salazar 1990; An Introduction to the Orchids of Mexico Wiard 1987; Las Orquedias De El Salvador Hamer vol 1 1974; Orchid Of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1985; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993;Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 as Guarianthe auriantica; Miniature Orchids Frownie 2007

Cattleya aurantiaca [Bateman ex Lindley]P.N.Don var alba 1840 SUBGENUS Circumvola SECTION Aurantiacae Withner 1989 Photo courtesy of David Hunt

to to A white variety of Cattleya aurantiaca.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 No 1 1986 photo;

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