Common Name The Undulate Schomburgkia
Flower Size to almost 2" [to almost 5 cm]
Found in Costa Rica, Panama, Colombia, Peru, Trinidad, Venezuela and Bolivia? at elevations of 600 to 1200 meters as a large sized, epiphyte or lithophyte on large branches and tree trunks or on large boulders on the Pacific slopes in dry deciduous forests, with fusiform, tapering at the base, deeply sulcate, shiney pseudobulbs carrying 2, rarely 3, elliptic-oblong, coriaceous, rigid leaves, that blooms on a erect, apical, 2 to 6' [60 to 180 cm] long, racemose, laxly many [20] flowered inflorescence covered with bracts with fragrant, or not, short-lived, waxy, showy flowers held in a cluster at the apex, arising on a mature pseudobulb that has tubular bracts, occurring in late fall till spring and is a hot to warm growing plant.
Synonyms Bletia excelsa Bradf. 1846; Bletia undulata [Lindley]Rchb.f 1861; Cattleya undulata [Lindley] Beer 1854; Laelia undulata [Lindley] L. O. Wms. 1941; Schomburgkia lueddemannii Prill. 1862; Schomburgkia quesneliana Lindl 1860; Schomburgkia violacea Paxton 1849
References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Bonplandia Rchb.f 1854; Xenia Orchidaceae vol 2 Rchb.f 1862 as Bletia undulata; Symbolae Antillanae Vol VI Orchidaceae Urban 1909; Native Orchids of Trinidad Schultes 1960 as Laelia undulata; Venezuelan Orchids Illustrated Vol 2 Dunsterville & Garay 1961 drawing good; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 1 1963; Encyclopedia of Cultivated Orchids Hawkes 1965 as Laelia undulata photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 38 No 6 1969; Flora de Venezuela Foldats Volumen XV Part 3 1970 drawing ok; Fieldiana Biology, Vol 33, 1st Supple. to the Orchids of Peru Schweinfurth 1970 as Laelia undulata; Die Orchideen #10 37-40a tafel 10 Rudolph Schlechter 1971 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela, An Illustrated Field Guide Vol 3 Dunsterville & Garay 1979 drawing good; Cattleyas and Their Relatives Withner Vol 3 1990 drawing/photo fide; Native Colombian Orchids Vol 4 COS 1992 photo fide; Icones Planetarum Tropicarum Plate 1489 Atwood 1993 drawing fide; Phylogeny and Classification of the Orchid Family Dressler 1993 photo fide; Orchids of Venezuela [An illustrated field guide] Vol. 3 Ramiro and Carnevali 2000 drawing good; Orquideas Nativas del Tachira Cesar Fernandez 2003 photo fide; Flora of the Venezuelan Guayana Vol 7 Steyermark, Berry, Yatskievych and Holst 2003; Orchids of Bolivia Vol 2 Laelinae Vasquez and Ibisch 2004; Orchid Species of Peru Zelenko Bermudez 2009 photo fide