Catasetum expansum
 

Two color forms (heck, both are delightful!).
Pure yellow/green is Ctsm. expansum 'Los Tres Pasas.' The mottled one, with somewhat larger flowers, is simply expansum, no clonal name.
Scent is a heady combination of spearmint, mothball, floor wax, grapefruit and maybe cheddar. Sweet!

Beautiful flowers, I love catasetums, but they don't love me back.

Awesome! Mine's all whacko right now, its sending out a new growth (I think). Ill have to show it pics of your expansums!

Gorgeous, Nancy!! Nice work. I dunno about that perfume, tho...

Beautiful, Nancy. Would you mind posting a picture of the entire plant, please?

Steve

Very Cool Nancy, thanks for sharing your pics. :)
I'm new to growing Catasetinae and don't yet have this species in my collection. I do have a small Ctsm. denticulatum that is putting out its first blooms now. I'll take a pic of it when it’s completely open and post it then...maybe in a day or two. :D

Beautiful expansum pix! My larger catasetums have already bloomed and I'm waiting for my seedlings to reach blooming size. I have ten seedlings from Sunset Valley Orchids, and a few others from a couple other sources. I'm hoping at least some of them will have first spikes later this year. We shall see.....

:photo: ??

:biggrin:

I suspect that if you want to grow catasetinae, you're better off with a "mess" of them, not just a few. Pretty easy and worthwhile to gather them all together for the winter rest...but if you have to segregate just one or two, it's too easy to water by accident when you're hosing down everything else.
That's my rationalization, and I'm sticking to it!
Regards - Nancy

Nancy, I have to agree with your rationale. It sounds perfect to me! Now, I just have to convince the MR. Or maybe I can just start sneaking them in.... It is very hard to give a rest to the one I had, but luckily I was very lazy/busy this winter and gave most of them a rest. Not enough of a rest for my Den. Nobile, but I guess enough for it. Thanks for the tip! ;)