Lycaste leucantha [Klotsch]Lindl. 1851 SECTION Lycaste Photos courtesy of Daniel Jimenez ©

Flower Closeup Plant grown by Marius Wasbauer, Photo courtesy of Dale and Deni Borders.

to EARLY to LATE

Common Name The White-Flower Lycaste

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

This is a Guatemalan, Costa Rican and Panamanian species found in montane evergreen woods at altitudes of 600 to 2000 meters and is a large sized, cool to warm growing epiphyte or lithophyte with ovoid, slightly compressed pseudobulbs carrying 2 to 3 apical, narrowly oblong or oblanceolate, acute leaves that blooms at the beginning of the growth season which occurs in early winter or late spring and early summer and has a 8" [20 cm] long, inflorescence that appears after the leaves have fallen, and sometimes has fragrant flowers.

One of the Lycaste macrophylla complex consisting of the species L dowiana, L fuscina, L guatemalensis, L leucantha, L macrophylla, L measuresiana, L panamensis, L puntarenasensis, L x sanderae, L viridescens, L xanthocheila, L xytriophora,

Synonyms Lycaste candida Rchb.f 1863; Lycaste leuco-flavescens Hort. ?; *Maxillaria leucantha Klotzsch, Otto & A. Dietr. 1850

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; AOS Bulletin Vol 33 No 4 1964 photo; The Genus Lycaste Fowlie 1970; Orchid Digest Vol 71-74 Oakley 2007; Lycaste, Ida and Anguloa The Essential Guide Oakley 2008

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