Laelia gouldiana Rchb.f 1888 SUBGENUS Laelia SECTION Podolaelia Schlechter

Another Color Form Photos by © Weyman Bussey.

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Common Name Gould's Laelia [New York Financier 1800's]

Flower Size 3 1/5" [8 cm]

Found in Hidalgo state of Mexico in the mountains at elevations around 1550 meters as a small to medium sized, cool growing epiphyte with fusiform, somewhat compressed pseudobulbs enveloped basally by 4 to 6 scarious sheaths and carrying 2 to 3, erect, lanceolate, bright green leaves that blooms in the fall and winter on an apical, erect, to 30" [75 cm] long, many flowered inflorescence carrying up to 10 well-rounded, magenta/red, 3" [7.5 cm] wide blooms that are awesome, as the lip is violet/red with a red-veined white center and a yellow keel, are mildly fragrant, and best of all it grows as easily as L. anceps.

This species is most likely extinct in the wild perhaps because it was considered one of the best of the Mexican Laelias

This species and L autumnalis var gouldiana are certainly different although at first glance they appear the same. L goudiana has brighter colored flowers and a different lip shape but what sets the 2 species apart is the 3 calli of the lip. On L gouldiana the three calli are actually a flat 3 striped raised plain and in L autumnalis the three calli are three raised ridge lines.

The second photo [another color form] shows a L gouldiana that is centered correctly and has a flat 3 lined plain and the flower at an angle on the right is L autumnalus with a deeply 3 ridged calli on the lip so the difference in these calli can be readily seen.

References W3 Tropicos, Kew Monocot list , IPNI ; Die Orchideen Schlechter 1915; Orchid Digest Vol 24 #3 1960 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 32 No 10 1963; AOS Bulletin Vol 36 #4 1967; AOS Bulletin Vol 37 No 1 1968 photo fide back cover ad; Die Orchideen 3 Auflage Bd 1 Sonderabdruck aus Schlechter Lieferung 10 576 - 632 Brieger, Maatsch and Senghas 1977 photo fide; Orchid Digest Vol 42 No 1 1978 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 51 No 12 1982 photo fide; Cattleya and Their Relatives Vol 2 Withner 1990 photo fide; The Manual Of Cultivated Orchid Species Bechtel, Cribb & Launert 1992 photo fide; Laelia in Mexico ORQUIDEA (MEX.) 15. OCTOBER 1997 drawing/photo fide; Oasis Vol 1 No 1 2000 photo; Icones Orchidacearum 5 - 6 Orchids of Mexico Part 2 - 3 Plate 598 Hagsater & Soto 2002 drawing fide; Australian Orchid Review Vol 73 No 5 2008 photo; AOS Bulletin Vol 77 No 12 2008 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 78 No 1 2009 photo; Orchid Digest Vol 74 #1 2010 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 86 # 1 2017 photo fide; AOS Bulletin Vol 88 #2 2019 photo fide;

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