Stanhopea insignis Frost

Horticultural & Botanical History

‘Among the Orchideous tribes, new wonders are continually presenting themselves to our observation and our study; more especially now, when the cultivation of them in the stoves of this country is brought to such a high degree of perfection, and when our increased intercourse with tropical regions has been the means of facilitating the acquisition of them.  The present species, though it may be excelled by others in the brilliancy of its colours, ranks pre-eminent for its size. […] In point of magnitude, I am not aware of any that approaches this, save the Ceratochilus grandiflorus of Loddiges, Bot. Cabinet, n.1414.’  Introduced to Britain in 1826, first flowered at Kew the following year.  [BM t.2948-9/1829]. 

‘Dr. Lindley, who suggested to us the name of Ceratochilus to another species, having since discovered that the name had been already applied by Blume to a different plant, has now placed it to the genus Stanhopea, as originally constituted by Dr. Hooker, in Curtis’s Magazine.  It appears to grow naturally upon trees, with the flowers hanging down. […] Seldom have we witnessed a more extraordinary subject in the size and form of its flowers, as well as in the curious markings of their different parts; but really both the number and the magnificence of the plants of this class becomes every day more astounding: they actually comprise a botanical world in themselves.  Dr. Lindley, in the first three parts of his elaborate Genera and Species, has described upwards of a thousand, and this is to be considered only as the beginning of the work, for new genera and species are constantly pouring in from all quarters.’  [LBC no.1985/1833].

History at Camden Park

Listed in the 1850 and 1857 catalogues [O.49/1850].  Obtained from Loddiges’ nursery, brought out from England by Captain P. P. King in 1849.  [ML A1980-3]. 

Notes