Chysis laevis Lindl. 1840

Photo by © Lourens Grobler

Part shade Cool Winter Spring

Common Name The Smooth Chysis

Flower Size 2" [5 cm]

Found in Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua at elevations around 1800 meters as a small sized, cool growing epiphyte with clavate, pendent pseudobulbs carrying several, elliptic to ovate-lanceolate, acuminate, thin, plicate, undulate margins, shortly petiolate base leaves that blooms in the late winter and early spring on a pendent, 4.8 to 8" [12 to 20 cm] long peduncle, 1.2 to 4.8" [3 to 12 cm] long rachis, several flowered inflorescence with lanceolate-ovate, acute floral bracts.

CAUTION Often cited as a synonym of C aurea but recently resurrected.

Synonyms Chysis nietana Gojon Sánchez 1930; Chysis orichalcea Dressler 2000

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Orchids of Mexico and Guatemala Bateman 1843 Drawing good; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees Constantin 1920 drawing not = C tricostata; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 3 1969 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 51 No 1 1982 photo; Las Orquideas de el Slavador Vol 3 Hamer 1981 drawing/photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 51 #1 1982 photo fide; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 15 881 - 944 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1984 drawing/photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum plate 1006 Hamer 1984 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 #8 1986 photo fide; An Introdution to the orchids of Mexico Wiard 1987 photos fide; Selbyana Vol 10 Orchids of Central America Hamer 1988 drawing fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 55 no 8 1986 photo; Guatemala Y Sus Orquideas Behar & Tinschert 1998 photo fide; Novon 10: 194 Dressler 2000 as Chysis orichalcea drawing/photo fide; Rudolf Schlechter Die Orchideen Band 1C lieferung 42 - 43 pg 2626 - 2762 Brieger 2001 as C orichalcea; Guia de Orquideas de Chiapas Carlos Rommel Beutelspacher Baigts 2013 photo fide; Algunas Orquideas de Mexico Tomo 1 Suarez 2013 photo fide; Orchids of Tropical America an introduction and guide Meisel 2014 photo plant only;

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