Cymbidium madidum


Cymbidium madidum, commonly known as the giant boat-lip orchid, is a plant in the orchid family and is endemic to north-eastern Australia. It is a clump-forming epiphyte or lithophyte with crowded pseudobulbs, each with between four and eight flat, strap-shaped, thin leaves and up to seventy olive green flowers with the sepals and petals curving forwards. It is found in moist habitats in eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales.

Description

Cymbidium madidum is an epiphytic or lithophytic, clump-forming herb with crowded, oval, slightly flattened, green pseudobulbs and wide. Each pseudobulb has between four and eight thin, strap-like, flexible leaves and wide. Between ten and seventy olive green to brownish green flowers, long and wide are borne on an arching flowering stem long. The sepals and petals curve forward rather than spread widely, the sepals long and wide, the petals long and wide. The labellum is long and wide with three lobes. The side lobes are erect and the middle lobe is yellowish and has a shiny ridge along its midline. Flowering occurs between August and February.

Taxonomy and naming

Cymbidium madidum was first formally described in 1840 by John Lindley who published the description in Edwards's Botanical Register. The specific epithet is a Latin word meaning "moist", "soaked" or "sodden".

Distribution and habitat

The giant boat-lip orchid grows in rainforest and other moist habitats on trees with fibrous or papery bark and on rocks and cliffs. It is found from the Cape York Peninsula in Queensland south to the Hastings River in New South Wales.

Traditional uses

Australian aborigines and early European settlers used pseudobulbs of Cymbidium madidum for dysentery and its seeds were used as an oral contraceptive.