!Chysis aurea Lindley 1837 Photo by © Eric Hunt

Another Flower Photo by © Jay Pfahl

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Common Name The Golden Chysis

Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]

Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru as a large sized, pendulous, warm to hot growing, epiphytic or semi-terrestrial orchid that is found in dense shade in humid forests and palm thickets at 700 to 1700 meters in elevation with elongate, fusiform-clavatte, many noded, compressed pseudobulbs carrying many towards the apice, distichous, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, undulate, membraneous leaves that blooms in the summer with a pendulous to arching, robust, 12" [30 cm] long, racemose inflorescence with ovate, acuminate, concave bracts that carries up to 12 waxy, fragrant, long-lived, color variable flowers and arises basally as a new pseudobulb growth appears.

Please notice that there are 5 calli on the lip, 3 white and 2 orange. This is the ditinguishing character of this species. If yuor flower has only three calli then go to C tricostata.

Synonyms Chysis laevis Lindl. 1840; Chysis makoyi Heynh. 1846; Chysis nietana Gojon Sánchez 1930

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *Edwards's Bot. Reg. 23: sub t. 1937. 1837; The Orchids of Mexico and Guatemala Bateman 1843 as Chysis laevis drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 NO 5 1958 drawing; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 1 1970; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 2 1970 as C laevis ; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 5 1979; AOS Bulletin Vol 51 No 1 1982 photo as C laevis; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 as Chysis laevis drawing ok/photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas # 43-46 Thuniinae etc 1984 as Chysis laevis drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 no 8 1986 photo as C laevis; An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb & Laurent 1992; Orchids of Venezuela An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 photo fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as C laevis; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Orchids of Panama Williams 1985; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1985; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005; Las Orquedeas de El Salvador Hamer vol 1 1974 drawing fide photo ok; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1006 Hamer 1984 drawing fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2001; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo not = C limminghei

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