Cymbidium Sw.
Sub family Epidendroidae
Tribe Cymbideae
Sub tribe Cymbidiinae
Derivation of name
From Greek kymbos a boat allusion to boat like labellum
Salient Features
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Epiphyte, lithophyte or terrestrial sympodial herb
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Autotrophic or rarely mycoheterotrophic
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Pseudobulbs ovoid to spindle shaped occesionaly absent & replaced by more slender stem oftern inconspicuous & conceled with leaf bases
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Roots branching arising from bases of new growth
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Leaves upto 13 distchous linear elliptic or narrowly ligulate to elliptic acuminate to strogly bilobed articulated closely to pseudobulbs to their persistant broadly sheathing bases
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Inflorescence usually arising from cataphylls occesionally from axil of leaves, peduncle erect , arched or pendulous covered with inflated cymbiform sheaths
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Flowers showy upto 12cm in diameter sometimes fragrant
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Sepals & Petals free oblong to oblong-lanceolate, sub similar, often spreading or with petal proerect covering column lateral sepals often falcate
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Labellum trilobed free or fused to the base of column upto 3-6mm, side lobes erect clasping to column, mid lobe often recurved
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Column winged, pollinia 2 cleft, sessile on broad viscidium
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This genus is represented by single genus at Sindhudurg district
Cymbidium bicolor Lindl.
In Gen. Sp. Orchid. Pl.: 164 (1833)
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Cymbidium bicolor subsp. bicolor
Ecology robust epiphytes, on Caryea arborea near river or stream in semievergreen forest
Pseudobulbs short, narrowly ovate–conical, bilaterally flattened, 5–6 × 2.2–4 cm, covered with leaf-sheaths.
Leaves 5–6, distichous, curved, 40–60 cm, slightly unequally lobed at tip.
Inflorescence 25–35, raceme, arising from within sheaths at base of pseudobulb, lax-flowered.
Flowers yellow purple, 3-4 cm across.
Bracts green, fleshy, triangular, obtuse, 2 mm long, 5-nerved, persistent.
Sepals spreading, subequal, fleshy, oblong; dorsal sepal 26× 5 mm, purple, margined with golden yellow; lateral sepals, slightly falcate, 28 × 5 mm, purple, golden yellow margin on upper side yellowish purple on lower side.
Petals 18 × 6 mm, ovate–oblong, obtuse, golden yellow at the margin purple centre.
Labellum trilobed, 12 × 8 mm, sub saccate at base; lateral lobes purple narrow, tips obtuse; mid-lobe, subentire, recurved, disc with 2 keels continuous from base of lip and extending up to end of the side lobes, sigmoid, clavate golden yellow at the centre & margins with purple patch in between.
Column 10cm, purple foot short. Stigma top of the column, broadly, triangular, rounded.
Anther yellow depressed, suborbicular; pollinia 2, waxy, yellow, obliquely oblong with a broad viscidium
Capsules 6.5 X 2.5 cm ovoid, elliptic, deep green, ribbed
Flowering: May – June
Fruiting: October