Cattleya skinneri Bateman 1839 subgen Circumvola sec Moradae Withner 1989 Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

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Common Name Skinner's Cattleya [English Orchid Collector and Trader 1800's]or in Costa Rica - Guaria Morada, in Guatemala - Candelaria, Central America - San Sebastian

Flower Size 3 1/2" [8.75 cm]

From Mexico to Costa Rica as a medium sized, bifoliate epiphyte where it is found in humid forests on tree trunks and branches or terrestrial-lithophyte on granite cliff banks at altitudes of 200 to 2300 meters with fusiform to clavate pseudobulbs 2 oblong to elliptic leaves and blooms in the winter through spring on a terminal, to 5 1/2" [13.75 cm] long, usually erect, few to many [4 to 15] flowered inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb and subtended by a large green, spathiform basal sheath and carries slightly fragrant flowers that often open not all at once, it likes to be mounted on wood and is an intermediate to hot growing species and is the national flower of Costa Rica. They like a dry winter rest and will bloom from brown or green sheaths that were formed the summer before.

Synonyms Cattleya laelioides Lem. 1852-3; Epidendrum huegelianum Rchb.f 1862; Guarianthe skinneri (Bateman) Dressler & W.E. Higgins 2003

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala t. 13. 1839; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2002; The Cattleya and their Relatives Withner Vol 1 1988; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1987; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel; Cribb & Laurent 1982; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1409 Mora & Atwood 1992; Orchids of Malaya Holttum 1957; Growing Orchids Vol 2 Rentoul 1982; An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1982; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1985; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica Dressler 1993; Lankesteriana 7: 38.2003 as Guarianthe skinneri; Vanishing Beauty; Native Costa Rican Orchids Vol 1 Pupulin 2005 as Guarianthe skinneri

Cattleya skinneri var. alba Bateman subgen Circumvola sec Moradae Withner 1989 Photo courtesy of Grace Longley.

to Same as the species above except it is a white cultivar that is found solely in Costa Rica.

Cattleya skinneri Bateman 1839 var coerula subgen Circumvola sec Moradae Withner 1989 Photo courtesy of Eric Hunt, plant grown by Fordyce Orchids.