Cymbidium madidum
giant boat-lip orchid
Family OrchidaceaeAlso called arrowroot orchid
About
The giant boat-lip orchid is a clump-forming epiphyte or lithophyte of northeastern Australia. Its arching sprays carry up to seventy olive-green flowers.
Field notes
Morphology
Crowded, oval, slightly flattened pseudobulbs 120–250 mm long each carry four to eight thin, flexible, strap-like leaves 300–900 mm long. Arching stems 200–600 mm long bear 10–70 olive to brownish-green flowers 22–35 mm long, whose sepals and petals curve forward rather than spreading.
Distribution & habitat
Rainforest and other moist habitats from Cape York Peninsula in Queensland south to the Hastings River in New South Wales, on trees with fibrous or papery bark and on rocks and cliffs.
History & etymology
John Lindley described it in 1840 in Edwards’s Botanical Register. The epithet madidum is Latin for moist or soaked.
Habitat
- Altitude
- Not recorded
- Altitude class
- —
- Native to
- Australia
Cultivation
- Difficulty
- Not recorded
Text adapted from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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