Stanhopea wardii Lodd. ex Lindley 1838 Photo courtesy of Dick Hartley Foxdale Orchids
Inflorescence Photo courtesy of Jay Pfahl
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Common Name Ward's Stanhopea [English Orchid Enthusiast 1800's]
Flower Size 5" [12.5 cm]
Found from Nicaragua, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia and Venezuela as a medium sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte occuring on trees and on rocks in humid cloud forests from 800 to 2700 meters in altitude, it can fill an entire house with it's pleasing scent. This species has pyriform to ovoid, sulcate psedobulbs with a single, apical, coriaceous, plicate, ribbed, elliptic-obovate, gradually narrows below into the elongate, petiolate base leaf. They bloom in the summer and fall on a pendant, 3 to 10 flowered, 6 to 7 1/4" [15 to 18 cm] long, crowded inflorescence arising on a mature pseudobulb and last from 2-4 days and as in all Stanhopea they must be kept in a wire basket or mounted on a plaque as the inflorescence hangs pendant from below the plant.
Synonyms Stanhopea amoena Klotsch; Stanhopea anfracta Rolfe; Stanhopea aurea Lindley; Stanhopea inodora var. amoena (Klotzsch) Lindley 1852; Stanhopea peruviana Rolfe; Stanhopea wardii var.aurantiaca hort.ex Hennig; Stanhopea wardii Lodd. Ex Lindley var aurea Lindley; Stanhopea wardii var. aureum hort. ex Henshall 1845; Stanhopea wardii var. flavescens Klinge 1899; Stanhopea wardii var.stenoptera Rchb.f. 1858; Stanhopea woodii Lindley 1950
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ;
Lankester's Epidendra Website CR ; *Sert. Orchid. t. 20. 1836; Xenia Orchidaceae Rchb.f 1854; Repert. Sp. Nov. Regni. Veg. Beih. 17: 60. Panama Schlechter 1922; AOS Bulletin Vol 26 No 2 1957 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 No 6 1958; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1959; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 2 1963 photo/drawing; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 4 1970; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Scweinfurth 1970; AOS Bulletin Vol 53 No 4 1984 photo Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1186 Dodson 1984; Schlechteriana Vol 4 No 1/2 1993 photo; Schlechteriana Vol 4 No 3 1993 photo; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1594 Atwood 1993; Oasis Vol 1 No 4 2000; Orchids Australia Vol 12 No 6 2000 photo; Australian Orchid Review Vol 69 No 2 2004 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 73 No 3 2004 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 75 No 6 2006 photo;
Stanhopea wardii var. aurea Lindl. 1852
A color variation of the previous species.
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