Sobralia chrysostoma

Dressler 2001

Native to Panama and Costa Rica

Edited 13 April 2007
text © Nina Rach

Originally published in Orchids, 70(8): 750-751, 770 (August 2001).
Type collection: el Valle de Anton, Panama. Also found growing in lava rocks near Tabacon Lodge, vicinity of Arenal, central cordillera of Costa Rica.

Showy short-lived large white flowers with ruffled, golden-yellow lips and white margins, produced successively. Grows in intermediate conditions, moderately bright-bright light, evenly moist.

Photo at left courtesy of Andres Maduro (Panama) and Woodstream Orchids.

Photo at right courtesy of Walter Schug (Costa Rica)

A synopsis of Dressler (2001) from "The Cutting Edge," Volume VIII, Number 4, October 2001:
"A well-known ornamental Sobralia (Orchidaceae) with golden-lipped flowers, ranging along the Atlantic slope from Nicaragua to central Panama, has long been called either S. leucoxantha Rchb. f. or S. powellii Schltr. The latter name has been established as applying to a rather different sp. of central Panama. Now, examination of the type of S. leucoxantha (one of the two entities alluded to in the title) reveals that this name has also been misapplied; correctly, Sobralia leucoxantha is the oldest name for a more humble sp., of Costa Rica and Panama, heretofore known as S. macra Schltr. The flashier, golden-lipped sp., momentarily nameless, is here formally christened as Sobralia chrysostoma Dressler (the second entity of the title). No specimens are cited other than the type."

See also, the page devoted to White Sobralias.