!Chysis aurea Lindley 1837
Photo by © Eric Hunt
Photo by © Jay Pfahl
to
Common Name The Golden Chysis
Flower Size 3" [7.5 cm]
Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela and Peru as a large sized, pendulous, warm to cool growing, epiphytic or semi-terrestrial orchid that is found in dense shade in humid forests and palm thickets at 700 to 1700 meters in elevation with elongate, fusiform-clavate, many noded, compressed pseudobulbs carrying many towards the apice, distichous, oblong-lanceolate, acuminate, undulate, membraneous leaves that blooms in the summer with a pendulous to arching, robust, 12" [30 cm] long, racemose inflorescence with ovate, acuminate, concave bracts that carries up to 12 waxy, fragrant, long-lived, color variable flowers and arises basally as a new pseudobulb growth appears.
Please notice that there are 5 calli on the lip, 3 white and 2 orange. This is the distinguishing character of this species. If your flower has only three calli then go to C tricostata.
Synonyms
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Lankester's Epidendra Website CR; *Edwards's Bot. Reg. 23: sub t. 1937. 1837; The Orchids of Mexico and Guatemala Bateman 1843 as Chysis laevis drawing fide; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 27 # 5 1958 drawing fide; Venezuelan Orchids Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1965 drawing fide; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 1 1970; AOS Bulletin Vol 39 No 2 1970 as C laevis; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing fide; Las Orquedeas de El Salvador Hamer vol 1 1974 drawing fide/photo ok; AOS Bulletin Vol 48 No 5 1979; Orquídea (Mexico City), n.s., 7[3]: 1979; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 1 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing fide; Las Orquedias de El Salvador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 as Chysis laevis drawing ok/photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 15 881 - 944 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1984; Orchids of Guatemala and Belize Ames & Correll 1985 drawing fide; Orchids of Panama Williams 1985;The Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb, Launert 1992 photo fide; An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids Pridgeon 1992; Manual of Cultivated Orchids Bechtel, Cribb & Laurent 1992; Field Guide to the Orchids of Costa Rica and Panama Dressler 1993; Manual of Orchids Stewart 1995; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 1 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing fide; Botanica's Orchids Laurel Glen 2001; Flora's Orchids Nash & La Croix 2005; Las Orquideas del Peru Izerskyy & Bezverhov 2011 photo not = C limminghei; Algunas Orquideas de Mexico Tomo 1 Suarez 2013 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 84 #8 2015 photo fide; Orchids, A Colombian Treasure Vol 1 Ortiz & Uribe 2014 drawing fide/photo ok;
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