!Stanhopea insignis Frost ex W. Hook. 1829 Photo courtesy of Dick Hartley Foxdale Orchids

Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Jiseph Dougherty

toLATE EARLY

Common Name The Grand Stanhopea

Flower Size 5 1/2" [14 cm]

Found in Rio de Janiero, Sao Paulo, Parana, Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul states of Brazil in dry montane forests at elevations 200 to 1000 meters as a medium sized, cool to hot growing epiphyte or occasional terrestrial with ovoid to round, ribbed pseudobulbs carrying a single, apical, plicate, petiolate leaf that blooms on a pendant, racemose, to 10" long, few to several flowered inflorescence with large, chartaceous bracts and heavily fragrant flowers occuring in the late summer and early fall.

Synonyms Ceratochilus insignis Lindl. ex Steud.; Ceratochilus insignis (Frost) Lindl. ex G. Don 1830; Stanhopea atropurpurea hort. ex Planchon 1858; Stanhopea flava Lodd. ex Beer; Stanhopea insignis var. alba hort. ex Linden 1853 ; Stanhopea insignis var. atropurpurea hort. ex Loddiges 1844; Stanhopea insignis var. atrorubens hort. ex Henshall ; Stanhopea insignis var. flava hort. ex Lodd. 1835 ; Stanhopea insignis var. fulva hort. ex Loddiges 1844; Stanhopea insignis var. guttata hort. ex Henshall 1845; Stanhopea insignis var. leucochila Lemaire 1847 ; Stanhopea insignis var. lutea hort. ex Loddiges ; Stanhopea insignis var. major hort. ex Loddiges 1844 ; Stanhopea insignis var. obscura hort. ex Loddiges 1844; Stanhopea insignis var. pallida hort. ex Loddiges 1844 ; Stanhopea insignis var. punctata hort. ex Heynhold 1846 ; Stanhopea insignis var. speciosa hort. ex Hoffmannsegg; Stanhopea insignis var. superba hort. ex Planchon 1858 ; Stanhopea macrochila Lem.; Stanhopea odoratissima Heynh.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854; Flora Brasilica Vol XII VI Hoehne 1942; Schlechteriana Vol 4 No 4 1993

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