Cynorkis lowiana Rchb. f. 1888 SECTION Lowiorchis Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Plant in situ Madagascar Photos by © Labat and Mobot Madagascar Photo List

to LATE THROUGH MID

Common Name Low's Cynorkis [English Orchid Gardener and collector 1800's]

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in eastern Madagascar in humid evergreen forests on shady trunks or moss covered rocks at elevations of 200 to 1200 meters as a small sized, hot to cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte with 2 elongate, villous, tubers carrying 2 sheaths, 1 short and the other elongate, brownish and tubular envloping the base of a single, narrowly lanceolate-linear leaf that is slightly attenuate basally and longly attenuate apically that blooms in the late winter through mid fall on a thin, 2 3/4" to 4 3/4" [7 to 12 cm] long, single [rarely 2] flowered inflorescence carrying large flowers .

Synonyms Cynorkis purpurascens Lindl. 1835; Cynosorchis lowiana Rchb.f 1888; Cynosorchis purpurascens Lindl. 1835

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Flora of Madagascar Perrier 1939/83 as Cynosorchis lowiana; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; Die Orchideen #5 17-20 tafel 6 Rudolph Schlechter 1971 photo fide; Die Orchideen Band 3 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1973 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 74 No 11 2005 photo; Orchids of Madagascar Hermans, Du Puy, Cribb & Bosser 2007 photo fide; Field Guide to the Orchids of Madagascar Cribb & Herman 2009 photo fide

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