Cyrtidiorchis rhomboglossa (F.Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Rauschert 1982 Photo by © Patricia Harding

Common Name The Diamond-Shaped Lip Cyrtidiorchis

Flower Size 1" [2.5 cm]

Found in Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru in wet montane forests at elevations around 2000 meters as a small sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte with two growth habits, the first are caespitose grweoths with pseduobulbs and roots and the second an branching stem without roots and pseudobulbs. The pseudobulbs are ovoid and lightly compressed and carry two, oblong ligulate, obtuse, conduplicate at the subpetiolate base leaves and giving rise to branched stems that have deciduous, foliaceaceous, oblong-ligulate, acute bracts for the entire length, and persistent sheathing bracts that blooms in the spring on an axillary, .8" [2 cm] long, subsessile, single flowered inflorescence enveloped by several lanceolate, acuminate bracts.

Synonyms *Chrysocycnis rhomboglossum F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1899; Chrysocycnis triptera Schltr. 1920; Cyrtidiorchis triptera (Schltr.) Rauschert 1982; Cyrtidium rhomboglossum (F.Lehm. & Kraenzl.) Schltr. 1924; Cyrtidium tripterum (Schltr.) Schltr. 1924