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Boat orchids

Cymbidium

Also called Cymbidiums

Boat orchids
Photo: Yercaud-elango, CC BY-SA 4.0

Cymbidium, the boat orchids, is a genus of evergreen orchids with about fifty-five wild species from tropical and subtropical Asia to Australia, and many popular garden and florist hybrids. Most grow well as cool-to-mild growing orchids with bright light and buffered watering.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Epiphyte, Orchid
Light
Bright indirect
Water
Water thoroughly when the potting medium begins to dry, and reduce watering in winter.
Soil
Fast-draining orchid bark or a bark and perlite mix.
Temperature
10–30 °C; many need cool nights of around 10–15 °C to flower, and protect from frost.
How easy
Moderate
Safety
Not known to be toxic

About

Cymbidium , commonly known as boat orchids, is a genus of evergreen flowering plants in the orchid family Orchidaceae. Orchids in this genus are epiphytic, lithophytic, terrestrial or rarely leafless saprophytic herbs usually with pseudobulbs. There are usually between three and twelve leaves arranged in two ranks on each pseudobulb or shoot and lasting for several years. From one to a large number of flowers are arranged on an unbranched flowering stem arising from the base of the pseudobulb. The sepals and petals are all free from and similar to each other. The labellum is significantly different from the other petals and the sepals and has three lobes. There are about fifty-five species and sixteen further natural hybrids occurring in the wild from tropical and subtropical Asia to Australia. Cymbidiums are well known in horticulture and many cultivars have been developed.

Where it grows

This genus is distributed in tropical and subtropical Asia (such as northern India, China, Japan, Malaysia, the Philippines, and Borneo) and Australia. The large flowering species from which the large flowering hybrids are derived usually grow at low altitudes, while short leaved species, from which compact hybrids with small to medium size flowers are derived, are high altitudes lithophytes and epiphytes.

Other Cymbidium plants

Low's Cymbidium

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Cymbidium by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

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