Catasetum osculatum Lacerda & P. Castro 1995

var chrystianum Photo by © José Luis Panozo Añez

Flower Closeup Photo © Lourens Grobler

Male and Female Flowers Photo courtesy of Katia Seagull and Her Orchid Web Site

Hermaphroditic Flower Photo by © Daniel Souza Part sunHotFall

Common Name or Meaning

Flower Size 2 2/5" [6 cm]

This is a large sized, hot growing, epiphytic, southwestern Brazilian species from Matto Grosso, Matto Grosso do Sul and Rondonia states in gallery Amazonian forests on living palms and dead trees at elevations of 200 to 500 meters with clustered, fusiform pseudobulbs enveloped basally by several deciduous, leaf sheaths carrying to 11, arched, oblanceolate, plicate leaves that blooms on a basal, arching to pendant, 18 2/5" [46 cm] long, racemose, several to many [to 20] flowered inflorescence arising on a newly mature pseudobulb and occurring in the summer through winter in Brazil and is best grown in a basket to accomodate the arching to pendant inflorescence. This species is similar to C saccatum but this has shorter and wider sepals and petals and the column is completly different as well as the lip opening is heart-shaped

Synonyms Catasetum saccatum var christyanum [Rchb.f] Mansfield ?

References Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The World Of Catasetum Holtz 1999 photo fide to var chrystianum; Icones Orchidacearum Brasileinses I plate 035 Campacci and Neto 1999 drawing fide

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