Catasetum galeritum is found in Brazil, states of Goiás, Maranhão, Tocantins, Amazonas, and Pará. It grows in an area of transition from rain forest to savannah or on living palms and other, dead trees in gallery and seasonally flooded forests.
Catasetum galeritum also called as The Small Cap Catasetum, Catasetum galeritum var pachyglossum, is a species of the genus Catasetum. This species was described by Heinrich Gustav Reichenbach in 1886.
IDENTIFY CATASETUM GALERITUM ORCHID PLANT
Catasetum galeritum is found in Brazil, states of Goiás, Maranhão, Tocantins, Amazonas, and Pará. It grows in an area of transition from rain forest to savannah or on living palms and other, dead trees in gallery and seasonally flooded forests.
It is a small sized, hot growing epiphyte with fusiform to conical, often curved, to 14 cm long and 3 cm wide pseudobulbs enveloped completely by leaf sheaths and carrying 6 to 7, oblanceolate, 3 veined, plicate, to 20 cm long and 4 cm wide leaves.
The Small Cap Catasetum blooms in the fall to winter on a male, pendant, to 25 cm long, 7 flowered inflorescence carrying fragrant flowers. The male flowers are 6 cm in diameter with coloration of peduncle and pedicels gray-green; sepals and petals white with indistinct veining; lip sac inside dark orange with dark brown longitudinal stripes; midlobe yellow with dark orange-brown margins; column pale green with brown margins; antennae dark brown. The female flowers are not seen.
The key to identify this species is the pedicels long and straight. Lip uniquely oval-triangular, deeply pouch-shaped. The flowers have a strong, pleasant fragrance. The plants from the states of Goiás, Maranhão, and Tocantins have larger flowers with a more yellowish lip. Those from the states of Amazonas and Pará have smaller flowers, which are fewer in number and have more reddish coloration.
CATASETUM GALERITUM ORCHID PLANT CARE AND CULTURE
Cultural information should only be used as a guide, and should be to be adapted to suit you. Your physical location; where you grow your plants, how much time you have to devote to their care, and many other factors, will need to be taken into account. Only then can you decide on the cultural methods that best suit you and your plants.
Light:
Catasetum galeritum are sun-loving plant and needs a light level of 30000-60000 lux. Unless the strong air movement found in the natural habitat can be duplicated, however, the grower should provide some shade (40-60 % shade). This species can be grown under lights if sufficient light intensity can be provided, and the plant certainly can be summered outdoors if their moisture requirements can be met.
Temperature:
The plants from the states of Amazonas and southern Pará, their natural climate is evenly hot, moist, and tropical. This climate is almost the same year-round, with high humidity at night, even in the dry season, which is relatively short. The nighttime temperatures rarely fall below 18°C, with daytime highs generally from 29 to 35°C. The important thing is to maintain evenly warm conditions, and for this orchid the closer the night minimum is to 21°C, the better the plants will respond.
The plants from the states of Goiás, Maranhão, and Tocantins, the climate in their natural habitat is essentially continental. The dry season is long and the humidity is very low throughout much of the year. Days are hot and dry, while nights are fairly cool. The terrain is typically tropical to subtropical savannah country, with the surface soil shallow and incapable of sustaining large trees. Temperatures range from a maximum 40°C to a minimum 10°C. In cultivation, 18°C is the ideal minimum night temperature.
Humidity:
The Small Cap Catasetum tolerate an environment with 40 - 60 % relative humidity during their growing season, but for optimal development of new growth and flowering, 70 % is recommended.
Substrate, growing media and repotting:
Catasetum galeritum is best grown in wooden basket with fir bark, osmunda, tree fern fiber, charcoal, and sphagnum, in various proportions or combined with still other ingredients such as sponge rock, perlite, leaf mold, peat, and bark screenings as substrate. This plant can also mounted on wood. This option presupposes that the plant is sufficiently strong, that it is not so large as to be unwieldy when hanging from its mount, that the grower can provide adequate humidity for it during the growing season, that the conversion to mounting is done at the very beginning of the growth cycle, and that the species is known to adapt readily to this cultural practice.
It is recommended to repot every year and never wait more than two years. The optimal time for potting or repotting is when new growth on a plant emerging from dormancy is about 5 cm tall and the nubs have developed into new roots that are reaching for support.
Watering:
In its natural habitat it receives rainfall frequently even while dormant. Mounted, basket-grown plant may be watered every sunny day during the growing season, provided conditions are such that they dry off relatively quickly. This species like to dry out at least slightly between waterings.
Fertilizer:
Fertilize with an appropriate formulation at least every week during the growing season, or fertilize with a weak formula every time the plants are watered. It is important to begin regular applications of high-nitrogen fertilizer (such as 10-5-5) with a full range of trace elements. As the leaves begin to unfurl, and well before flowering, add a high-phosphorus formula to develop big, strong pseudobulbs capable of producing robust inflorescences. Any of the soluble products with a large second-digit number (for example, 3-12-6) constitute a good source of phosphorus.
Rest period:
The Catasetum galeritum plants from the states of Amazonas and southern Pará have a relatively short dormant period between leaf fall and new growth, and sometimes no dormancy at all, so the likelihood that at least some of their basic root system will survive from one growing season to the next increases. For this reason it is desirable to maintain a watering schedule, albeit reduced, during dormancy.
For the plants from the states of Goiás, Maranhão, and Tocantins: when the plants are leafless and no new growths are visible, the grower must respect their state of dormancy. Watering frequency should be reduced during dormancy. Fertilization should stop completely during this period. In the springtime, at the beginning of the growth cycle, water should not be made regularly available for the newly developing roots until the new growth is at least 5 cm tall.
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