!Lycaste macrophylla (Poepp. & Endl.) Lindl. 1843 SECTION Lycaste Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl, plant grown by JEM Orchids

FragrancePart shadeCoolTo HotSummer To Fall

Common Name The Large Leaf Lycaste

Flower Size to 4 1/2" [ to 11 cm]

A medium to large sized, cool to hot growing terrestrial species, highly variable in flower color and plant size, that is found from Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Venezuela at elevations of 400 to 2400 meters in wet montane forests with ovoid-oblong to broadly ellipsoid, complanate, sulcate, obtusely angled, pseudobulbs subtended by a few, imbricating leaf sheaths and after leaf fall has no apical teeth, carrying 2 to 3, non-deciduous, large elliptic, attenuate to channeled petiol, acuminate above, plicate leaves that blooms on a succession of erect, many [5] at once, basal, to 7" [17.4 cm] long, inflorescence that has inflated papery bracts, arising on a newly maturing pseudobulb and flowering successively over several months occurring in the summer and fall with fragrant, waxy, color variable flowers held below the leaves.

This species heads up 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 filomenoi Schltr. 1921; Lycaste macrophylla subsp. desboisiana (Cogn.) Fowlie 1964; Lycaste macrophylla subsp. filomenoi (Schltr.) Fowlie 1964; Lycaste macrophylla subsp. neglecta (Schltr.) Fowlie 1970; Lycaste macrophylla subsp. panamanensis Fowlie 1964 ; Lycaste macrophylla subsp. plana (Lindl.) Fowlie 1964; Lycaste macrophylla subsp. viridescens Oakeley 1991; Lycaste macrophylla var alba Oakley 2008; Lycaste macrophylla var. desboisiana Cogn. 1897; Lycaste macrophylla var. measuresianum Sander 1901; Lycaste macrophylla var. plana (Lindl.) Oakeley 2007; Lycaste neglecta Schltr. 1929; Lycaste plana Lindl. 1842; *Maxillaria macrophylla Poepp. & Endl. 1836; Maxillaria phyllomega Steud. 1841

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list IPNI ; Die Orchideen der Sudamerikanischen Kordillerenstaaten IV Peru Schlechter 1921 as L filomenoi; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VII 115-147 Hoehne 1953; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959; The Genus Lycaste Fowlie 1970; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 4 1970; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum 830 Dodson 1983; AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 4 1984 photo Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 936 Dodson 1984; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 2 1991; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 079 Bennett & Christenson 1993; AOS Bulletin Vol 66 No 3 1997 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 11 1998 photo; Icones Orchidacearum Peruviarum Plate 491 Bennett & Christenson 1998; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 COS 2002; Native Ecuadorian Orchids Vol 3 COS 2002 as L plana; Orquideas de la Serrania del Baudo Misas Urreta 2006; Orchid Digest Vol71-74 Oakley 2007; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 2 2008 photo;

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