Cymbidium tracyanum

One of my favorite Cymbidiums is presently in bloom: Cym. tracyanum. It takes up some real estate, an especially important issue for orchid growers who need to bring their plants in to over-Winter. The flowers are wonderfully fragrant, and it is unfortunate that the technology does not yet enable “scratch-and-sniff” via the web.

I have three different tracyanum cultivars: a) ‘Burmese Bronze’ obtained from the Santa Barbara Orchid Estate, b) a cultivar from the cross “tracyanum FCC/RHS x tracyanum F1” made by Andy Easton and obtained from Top Hat Orchids, and c) ‘New Horizon’, 4N obtained from Hatfield Orchids. The latter two plants did not flower this year, so I can’t yet post a comparison between them, e.g. color, shape, size, etc… Next year.

‘Burmese Bronze’ is late to bloom this year. My notes from last year indicate that it bloomed early November. While visiting a colleague’s greenhouse this afternoon, I noticed that his Cym. tracyanum flowers are also just beginning to open up. Perhaps it was the longer stretch of mild Fall weather that delayed spike initiation.

Natural Spread: 9cm horizontal;
Dorsal Sepal: 7.2cm length, 2.3cm width
Lateral Sepal:6.3cm length, 2.3cm width
Petals: 6.6cm length, 1.3cm width
Lip (horiz.) (vert.):6.1cm length, 2.2cm width mid-lobe/side-lobe junction; 2.5cm width at apex.

13 evenly-spaced flowers and 2 buds on an upright to arching inflorescence measuring 130cm in length.

Below are pics of one or two flowers as they are opening up. They reminded me of the Vorlon ships in the “Babylon 5” series.