Cattleya warscewiczii Rchb.f. 1854 SECTION Cattleya SECTION Cattleya Lindley

Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl

Color Variation Photo courtesy of Jean Claude George

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Common Name Warscewicz's Cattleya [Polish Orchid Colletor 1800's], in Colombia Flor de San Juan or Flor de San Roque

Flower Size 7 - 11" [17.5 to 27.5 cm]

This is a northwestern Colombian species found at elevations of 500 to 1500 meters in bright to almost full sun on trees near streams where it is a cool to hot growing epiphyte with thick, shiney, cigar-shaped, deeply grooved pseudobulbs carrying a single, apical, oblong , very thick, leathery leaf that is rounded apically that blooms in the summer on a terminal, to 18" [to 45 cm] long inflorescence with , large, showy, few to several [4 to7], fragrant flowered.

Synonyms Cattleya gigas Linden & André 1873; Cattleya gloriosa D.J. Carr 1885; Cattleya imperialis O'Brien 1887; Cattleyea labiata var. warscewiczii [Rcb.f]Rchb.f. 1883; Cattleya lindeni L. Linden 1890; Cattleya sanderiana H. Low 1896; Epidendrum labiatum var warscewiczii Rchb.f 1861

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854 drawing; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1862 as Epidendrum labiatum var warscewizcii; The Cattleya and their Relatives Withner Vol 1 1988; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1987 as c labiata var warscewiczii; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel; Cribb & Laurent 1982; Growing Orchids Vol 2 Rentoul 1982; An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1982; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 1 COS 1990; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 5 COS 1994; AOS Bulletin Vol 66 No 3 1997; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 9 1998 photo; Orchid Australia Vol 11 No 6 1999 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 68 No 6 1999 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 1 2003 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 72 No 11 2003 photo; The Colombian Cattleya and their Color Variations Toulemonde 2004; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 12 2005 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 76 No 3 2007 photo as C gigas; Orchid Digest Vol 73 #1 2009 drawing;

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