Cymbidium iridioides D. Don 1825 SECTION Cyperorchis Hunt 1970 Photo courtesy of © Stephen Early

FragrancePart shadeWarmTo ColdSummer Fall

Common Name The Iris-Like Cymbidium

Flower Size 3 to 4" [7.5 to 10 cm]

This species is from the Chinese Himalayas, Assam India, eastern Himalayas, Nepal, western Himalayas, Myanamar and Vietnam on mossy trees in shady, wet montane forests or on rocks in forests or on cliffbanks and is found at an altitude of 1000-2800 meters as a large sized, warm to cold growing, epiphyte and sometimes lithophye with elongate-ovoid, bilaterally compressed pseudobulbs enveloped basally by distichous, persistent leaf bases and carrying 4 to 7, narrowly lanceolate to linear-lanceolate, acute, mid-green leaves articulated 2.4 to 4.4" [6 to 11 cm] from the pseudobulb to a yellow green, broad leaf base that blooms in the summer and fall on a suberect or horizontal, 18" to 3' [45 to 90 cm] long, racemose, several [4 to 20] flowered inflorescence enveloped by scarious sheaths and triangular floral bracts that carries rather distant, long-lasting, slightly fragrant flowers.

Synonyms Cymbidium giganteum Wall. ex Lindl. 1833; Cyperorchis gigantea (Blume) Schltr. 1924; Iridorchis gigantea [Lindley]Blume ; Limodorum longifolium Buch.-Ham. ex Lindl. 1833

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; The Orchids of Burma Grant 1895/95 as C giganteum; AOS Bulletin Vol 47 No 7 1978 as C giganteum; AOS Bulletin Vol 54 No 3 1985; Wild Orchids of China Tsi, Chen Mori 1997; Native Orchids of China in Colour Singchi, Zhanhuo and Yibo 1999 photo fide; Beautiful Orchids of Nepal Rajbhandari & Bhattarai 2001; Orchids of Bhutan Pearce & Cribb 2002; Wild Orchids in Myanamar Vol 2 Tanaka 2004; The Genus Cymbidium Du Puy & Cribb 2007; Native Orchids From Gaoligongshan Maountains, China Xiaohua, Xiaodong and Xiaochun 2009 photo fide;

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