Stanhopea graveolens Lindley 1840 Photo Courtesy of Rudolf Jenny

to and EARLY

Common Name The Very Fragrant Stanhopea

Flower Size 5"

A cool growing epiphyte or lithophyte from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras in forests up to 2700 meters in elevation with ovoid-conical to rhomboidal, sulcate, slightly compressed pseudobulbs carrying a single, apical, elliptic-lanceolate to broadly obovate-elliptic, abruptly acute, petiolate, sulcate leaves which needs a wire basket culture as the few large, showy, fragrant, waxy flowers, which are incredibly complex, descend from the bottom of the plant on a short, pendulous, 1 to 6 flowered inflorescence with papery, spathe like bracts all occuring in the spring and early summer.

Synonyms Stanhopea aurata (Lindley) Planchon 1858 ; Stanhopea aurea Loddiges non Lindley 1844; Stanhopea graveolens var. aurata Ldl 1852; Stanhopea graveolens var venusta Lindl. 1858; Stanhopea inodora Rchb.f. (non Lindley) 1870; Stanhopea oculata [Lodd.]Lindley var. constricta Klinge; Stanhopea venusta Lindley 1841; Stanhopea venusta hort ex Planchon non Lindley 1858; Stanhopea wardii var. froebeliana Cogniaux 1904; Stanhopea wardii var. venusta Rolfe 1892

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VI Hoehne 1942; AOS Bulletin vol 47 No 9 1978 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 4 1984 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 62 No 7 1993 photo; Orchids Australia Vol 13 No 2 2001 photo; Orchid Species Of Peru Zelenko & Bermudez 2009 photo fide

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