Orchid Species: Aerides maculosa

Aerides maculosa botanical illustration from Edwards' Botanical Magazine.

Species Description

Aerides maculosa (alternative spelling: Aerides maculosm) is a “lovely dwarf Orchid from Bombay, with dark green leaves, eight inches long, close and compact, stiff growing, with light-coloured flowers, spotted all over with purple, and a large purple blotch on the lip. Blooms in June and July, and, if the flowers are kept dry, lasts four weeks in perfection. The colour of the flower is very striking. The plant is slow growing, which is the reason we so seldom see fine plants.” (Source: Classic Orchid Grower’s Manual.)

Varieties and Cultivars

Aerides maculosa var. schroderi is a “magnificent free-growing plant from the hills near Bombay, much stronger than Aerides maculosa, and more in the way of Aerides crispum, with dark green foliage, ten inches long; the flowers are very delicate, the sepals and petals almost alike—white, tinged with lilac and spotted with rose, the labellum being of a beautiful rose colour. It flowers in June or July, lasting three weeks in perfection. This was first flowered by J. H. Schroder, Esq. It is supposed that there was only one plant imported; and the stock at present in this country is from that one plant.” (Source: Classic Orchid Grower’s Manual.)

Synonyms

• Aerides maculosm

Publications

• Classic Orchid Grower’s Manual
• Edwards’s Botanical Register, volume 31 (NS 8 ) plate 58