Chinese Cymbidium ?

[weng]

Hi Harry,

You guessed right . I have amassed a vast orchid library, and was mainly using 'The Genus Cymbidium' by Du Puy & Cribb.

I love orchid hunting in the wild, and would spend many hours trying to identify the photos I have taken - usually without any success, because I hadn't taken sufficient measurements or checked things like 'if the lip is attached to the column' I'd love to see the authors do that when they are halfway up a tree with fire-ants swarming all over

With regards to the tip shape, I was merely hunting for clues to help with the identification. So I wasn't expecting to see any particular tip shape. As I had pointed out in a previous mail, the Cymbidiums don't all have the same tip shape. So if your specimen had a rather more unique shape, it would have served to discount many of the other possibles.

Good hunting.

Weng

[harrygermany]

Hi Weng,

I just found:
"Cymbidium faberi var. szechuanicum" seems to be a synonym of "Cymbidium cyperifolium var. szechuanicum".

Compare: Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: World Checklist Series

Harry

[weng]

Good one, Harry !

According to Du Puy & Cribb, they do look very similar, 'but the mid-lobe of the lip has a tightly undulating and minutely erose margin, and is ornamented with numerious, inflated, shiny papillae in C faberi. These characters of the mi-lobe are the most constant characters which distinguish these two species. They further differ in their flowering period; from January until April for C faberi and during November and December for C cyperifolium in this region.' (China).

It now looks like they've decided to move var szechuanicum from faberi back into cyperifolium. I'll have to amend my books. Thank you.

Weng