Orchid Species: Lycaste aromatica

ORIGIN: Epiphyte on mossy branches, lithophyte on damp limestone cliffs or occasional terrestrial in tropical semi-deciduous forests or warm oak forests in ravines along streams from Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador.

DESCRIPTION: A medium to large, cool to warm growing epiphyte on mossy branches, lithophyte on damp limestone cliffs or occasional terrestrial in tropical semi-deciduous forests or warm oak forests in ravines along streams. It has ovate, compressed pseudobulbs subtended by fibrous sheaths and carrying deciduous, lanceolate, plicate, acuminate, basally clasping leaves, smells of cinnamon, and it blooms in late spring-summer along with the onset of new growth and there may be up to 10 erect, short to 6 [ 15 cm], brown sheathed, single flowered spikes per pseudobulb. They are a deciduous plant so as the leaves brown up to fall it is time to give less water. As a lithophytic grower it is often found on damp limestone cliffs or epiphytically on mossy trees in moist cool woodlands between 500 and 2000 meters and has ovoid, compressed, sulcate pseudobulbs with 2 to 3 apical spines after the leaf falls and several scarious sheaths at the base from which the inflorescence arises with 2 to 3 deciduous, plicate, oblong-elliptic to elliptic obovate, acuminate leaves that are absent at blooming. Similar to L crinita but differs in pseudobulbs and leaves less robust, the disc of the lip less pubescent, and the scapes are shorter as well as found on the eastern slopes of Vera Cruz and Chiapas instead of the western or Pacific slopes.

FLOWER SIZE: To almost 3 inches [to almost 7.6 cm] -- information provided by Jay Pfahl, author of the Internet Orchid Species Encyclopedia (IOSPE).

Most awarded/recent cultivars: Lyc. aromatica 'Klein Flottbek' (4 awards from 2012 to 2018) Lyc. aromatica 'Gerry's Gold' (2 awards from 1996 to 2017) Lyc. aromatica 'Sellon' (2 awards from 1983 to 1986) Lyc. aromatica 'Joe' (2 awards from 1966 to 1972) Lyc. aromatica 'Jardin botanique de Montréal' (2016) Lyc. aromatica 'New Vision' (2014) Lyc. aromatica 'Paphii' (2014) Lyc. aromatica 'Deggendorf' (2013) Lyc. aromatica 'Neu-Ulm 2012' (2012) Lyc. aromatica 'Nancy' (2010) Lyc. aromatica 'Westfield' (2009) Lyc. aromatica 'My Blonde Wife' (2003) Lyc. aromatica 'S. B.' (2000) Lyc. aromatica 'Bob & Eleanor' (1992) Lyc. aromatica 'Nikky Fuchs' (1972) Lyc. aromatica 'Ivanhoe' (1971)