Cattleya

Description:

The typical flower has three rather narrow sepals and three usually broader petals: two petals are similar to each other, and the third is the quite different conspicuous lip, featuring various markings and specks and an often frilly margin. At the base, the margins are folded into a tube. Each flower stalk originates from a pseudobulb.

Habitat:

Cattleya is a genus of 113 species of orchids from Costa Rica and the Lesser Antilles south to Argentina.

Notes:

The genus was named in 1824 by John Lindley after William Cattley who received and was the first to bloom a specimen of Cattleya labiata.