Cyrtochilum gargantua (Rchb. f.) Kraenzl. 1917 SECTION Eucyrtochilum Kranzlin Photo by © Pieter C. Brouwer and his Nature Photo Website

Another Flower Photo by © Guido Deburghgraeve

to

Common Name The Dreadful Cyrtochilum

Flower Size 2.6" [6.5 cm]

Found in Ecuador and Southern Peru at elevations around 2900 meters as a large sized, cool to cold growing epiphyte or terrestrial with pear-shaped, laterally compressed, ancipitous, longitudinally grooved pseudobulbs partially enveloped by several pairs of distichous, imbricating, leafless below, leaf-bearing above sheaths and carrying 2, apical, slender, acute, erect to arching, strap-shaped, conduplicate below into the short narrow petiole-like base that blooms in the fall on a axillary, to 96" [to 250 cm], stout, climbing, loose paniculate, many flowered inflorescence with many fractiflex, 8" [20 cm] long, 7 flowered branches spaced 6" [15 cm] apart.

Synonyms Cyrtochilum bismarckii ( D.E.Benn. & Christenson ) Senghas 2001; ; Oncidium bismarckii D.E.Benn. & Christenson 1998; Oncidium gargantua Rchb. f. 1876

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; *Das Pflanzenreich Odontoglossum/Oncidium Kranzlin 1917 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 67 No 1 1998 photo; Lindleyana Vol 16 No 2 2001; The Pictoral Encyclopedia of Oncidium Zelenko 2002; Orchid Species Culture: Oncidium, Bakers 2006; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------