Aganisia cyanea

Aganisia cyanea
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Monocots
Order:	Asparagales
Family:	Orchidaceae
Subfamily:	Epidendroideae
Tribe:	Maxillarieae
Subtribe:	Zygopetalinae
Alliance:	Zygopetalum
Genus:	Aganisia
Species:	A. cyanea
Binomial name
Aganisia cyanea (Lindl.) Rchb.f. (1876)
Synonyms
Acacallis cyanea Lindl. (1853) (Basionym) Warrea cinerea Benth. (1881) Aganisia tricolor N.E. Br. (1885) Kochiophyton negrense Schltr. ex Cogn. (1906) Kochiophyton caeruleum Hoehne (1910) Acacallis hoehnei Schltr. (1918)

Aganisia cyanea is a species of showy orchid from Columbia, Venezuela, and Brazil that is remarkable because some specific plants of this species produce 'true blue' colored flowers, the color blue being quite rare among the orchids.

The plants are found in very wet, lowland rain forests in Columbia, Brazil, and Northern South America growing on lower sections of the trunks of large trees. The plants can be submerged under water during monsoons for several weeks due to flooding in habitat with no apparent harm.

The plants grow from a creeping rhizome with inter-spaced pseudobulbs with one apical, usually pleated leaf. These plants bloom from the base of the pseudobulbs, and produce a raceme of up to 10 flowers.

The flowers of these plants have a metallic, almost surreal appearance and appear to be made of bluish metal and are very striking, and some specific plants of this species produce flowers that are 'true blue', very rare among orchids. The flowers take on a more bluish caste when not exposed to direct sunlight.

Cultivation

In cultivation, they are best accommodated on tree fern or cork bark slabs mounted bare root and given high humidity and abundant water and feeding year round, and moderate shade. They prefer moderate to warm temperatures.

The species is much sought after in cultivation because of its blue metallic flowers, but plants collected from habitat in the past usually only survived a period of a few years in cultivation, and plants removed from habitat have proven very difficult to maintain in cultivation.

Wild collected plants in cultivation had an observed growth habitat of behaving like an annual and dying after seed set or flowering after a decline in the size of new plant growth over each successive year. Recent seed grown plants have proven much hardier in cultivation and more robust. These plants are protected under CITES II and local and regional laws and should not be removed or disturbed in habitat.

The plants are available commercially from flasked seedlings of varieties that are more amendable to cultivation and these plants are easily obtainable.

Flora / Flowers

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  Aganisia cyanea
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  Aganisia cyanea
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  Aganisia cyanea
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  Aganisia cyanea

Illustrations

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  Aganisia cyanea
  Illustration in:
  Charles Lemaire and others:
  "Flore des serres et des jardins de l’Europe",
  volume 1
  (1845)
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  Aganisia cyanea
  (as syn.
  Kochiophyton negrense)
  Illustration in:
  Flora Brasiliensis vol. 3 pt. 6 tab. 119
  (1904-1906)
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