Orchid Species: Cistella cernua

ORIGIN: Found from the Guangdong, Guangxi, Guizhou, Hainan, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces of China Assam, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Andaman Islands, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Malaysia, Lesser Sunda Islands, Moluccas, Sulawesi, Philippines, Bismark Islands, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Queensland Australia, Western Australia, Fiji, Niue, New Caledonia, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, Caroline Islands, Marianas Islands and Taiwan in moist grasslands, sandy areas behind beaches and rainforests as well as in semi-deciduous and deciduous dry lowland forests and savana-like woodlands at elevations of sea level to 1800 meters.

DESCRIPTION: A medium to small, hot to cool growing terrestrial orchid with underground, spherical pseudobulbs carrying, 2 to 5, thin-textured, lanceolate to oblong-elliptic, plicate, petiolate leaves that blooms in the fall and spring with an erect, basal, 4 to 10 [10 to 25 cm] at the outset and extending to 12 to 16 [30 to 40 cm], many [10 to 25] flowered inflorescence with a short rachis and the waxy, non-spreading flowers crowded at the apex that always has a U shape to it, with the flowers clustered on the downward side until fertilization occurs which causes it to straighten out, as it continues to arise with a new growth.

FLOWER SIZE: 3/8 inch [1 cm] -- information provided by Jay Pfahl, author of the Internet Orchid Species Encyclopedia (IOSPE).

Most awarded/recent cultivars: Gdm. densiflorum 'Orchid World' (1995)