Cooktown Orchid  |  

Taxa within the Cooktown orchid group are a striking, large flowering species with round, long-lasting flowers. Individuals form small to medium sized clumps on trees and rocks. These clumps consist of a number of erect cylindrical stems that are slightly swollen in the middle with rounded bases. The psuedobulb has 3-5 leaves that grow to 15 cm long and 2.5 cm wide. The stems are green or purplish and can grow to 120 cm tall and 1.5 cm wide; leaves occur on the upper third of the stem. The leaves are narrowly ovate, 5-15 cm long and 0.5-3.5 cm wide, dark green, often with purplish margins or heavily suffused with purple. Individuals produce arching sprays of 2-20 pansy-like, long-lasting flowers on racemes that are up to 40 cm long. Flowers are up to 3 cm wide and 5 cm long, but sometimes very small, and generally lilac purple, although they can sometimes be white, blue or pink.