Stanhopea tigrina (tiger-spotted stanhopea)

The spectacular and heavily scented tiger-spotted stanhopea has, as the name suggests, large flowers marked with distinctive purplish-brown streaks and stripes on a yellowish background.

Stanhopea tigrina
Stanhopea tigrina (Image: RBG Kew)

Species Information

  • Scientific Name: Stanhopea tigrina Bateman ex Lindl.
  • Common name(s): tiger-spotted stanhopea
  • Synonym(s): Stanhopea expansa P.N.Don
  • Conservation Status: Not evaluated according to present IUCN Red List criteria, but formerly listed as Vulnerable (V) by IUCN. Listed in Appendix II of CITES.
  • Habitat: Rainforests.
  • Key Uses: Ornamental, culinary.
  • Known hazards: None known.

Taxonomy

  • Class: Equisetopsida
  • Subclass: Magnoliidae
  • Superorder: Lilianae
  • Order: Asparagales
  • Family: Orchidaceae – Epidendroideae
  • Genus: Stanhopea

About this species

The genus Stanhopea was named by Sir William Hooker, Director of Kew, to commemorate the Rt Hon. Philip Henry Stanhope, President of the Royal Medico-Botanical Society of London from 1829 until 1837. There are over 60 species in the genus, most of which occur in tropical South and Central America.

Stanhopea tigrina was first described in 1837 by James Bateman (1811-1897) in his monumental 10 volume work, The Orchidaceae of Mexico and Guatemala. Bateman was Vice-President of the Royal Horticultural Society and a keen grower of tropical orchids. Bateman’s books were instrumental in stimulating interest in orchids and orchid growing in Britain in the 19th century. The type plant he described was collected by John Henchman in Mexico, and the image in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine shows a plant painted by Walter Hood Fitch in 1850, by which time ‘the species is now not uncommon in our collections, and is said to have been introduced to them by Messrs. Low, of Clapton, from Xalapa in Mexico.’

Geography & Distribution

Stanhopea tigrina is found only in Mexico.

Description

Stanhopea tigrina is an epiphytic orchid, with upright, oblong leaves (35 cm long and 10 cm wide), each arising from single pseudobulb, which form tight clusters. The large flowers are scented and produced in groups of 2–4 in a pendulous inflorescence up to 15 cm long. Individual flowers have yellow petals and sepals and are heavily spotted and streaked purplish-brown. Each sepal is reflexed (bent backwards) and measures up to 8.0 cm long and 5.0 cm wide. The petals are around 7.0 cm long and 1.5 cm wide. Pollination is by male euglossine bees (also known as orchid bees), which collect floral fragrance compounds from the lip of the flowers.

Illustration from Curtis's Botanical Magazine

Stanhopea tigrina illustration

A hand-coloured lithograph of Stanhopea tigrina by W.H. Fitch (1845) taken from Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Image: RBG Kew)

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Editor: Martyn Rix) provides an international forum of particular interest to botanists and horticulturists, plant ecologists and those with a special interest in botanical illustration.

Now well over two hundred years old, the Magazine is the longest running botanical periodical featuring colour illustrations of plants. Each four-part volume contains 24 plant portraits reproduced from watercolour originals by leading international botanical artists. Detailed but accessible articles combine horticultural and botanical information, history, conservation and economic uses of the plants described.

Published for the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew by Wiley-Blackwell Publishing.
See the Wiley-Blackwell Subscription Information page for rates (for both print and online).

Threats & Conservation

Not evaluated according to present IUCN Red List criteria, but Stanhopea tigrina was formerly listed as Vulnerable (V) by IUCN. Stanhopea tigrina is also listed in Appendix II of CITES to help ensure international trade is monitored and controlled.

Uses

Tiger-spotted stanhopea is cultivated as an ornamental. The flowers of Stanhopea tigrina were sometimes used to flavour tortillas.

Cultivation

Tiger-spotted stanhopea has large showy scented flowers, each of which last only two to three days. As these occur on pendulous stems, the plant needs to be grown in a hanging basket to mimic its natural growth. Propagation is by seed or division.

This species at Kew

Tiger-spotted stanhopea can be seen in the Princess of Wales Conservatory when in flower, normally in late summer or early autumn.

Pressed and dried, and alcohol-preserved specimens of Stanhopea tigrina are held in Kew’s Herbarium, where they are available to researchers from around the world, by appointment. The details of some of these, including an image, can be seen on-line in the Herbarium Catalogue.

Useful Links

Search Kew's databases for more information on this species

Kew Science Teams: Monocots III: Orchids

More about the Orchid (Orchidaceae) family

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine (Wiley-Blackwell)

References and credits

Bechtel, H., Cribb, P. & Launert, E. (1992). The Manual of Cultivated Orchid Species. Cassell Illustrated, London.

Brummitt, R.K. & Powell, C.E (1996). Authors of Plant Names. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.

Cribb, P. & Tibbs, M. (2004). A Very Victorian Passion: The Orchid Paintings of John Day 1863 to 1888. Blacker Publishing/ Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew/ Thames & Hudson, London.

Hooker, W.J. (1845). Stanhopea tigrina. Curtis’s Botanical Magazine 71: t. 4197.

Mabberley, D.J. (2008). Mabberley’s Plant-book: a Portable Dictionary of Plants, their Classification and Uses. 3rd edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (2008). Seed Information Database (SID). Version 7.1. Published on the Internet at: http://data.kew.org/sid/SidServlet?ID=22164&Num=pCx (accessed 6 August 2011).

Walter, K.S. & Gillett, H.J. (eds) (1998). 1997 IUCN Red List of Threatened Plants. Compiled by the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. IUCN – The World Conservation Union, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

World Checklist of Selected Plant Families (2010). Stanhopea tigrina. The Board of Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Published on the Internet at: http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/namedetail.do?name_id=196166 (accessed 6 August 2011).

Kew Science Editor: Martyn Rix
Kew contributors: Steve Davis (Sustainable Uses Group)
Copyediting: Malin Rivers

Although every effort has been taken to ensure that the information contained in these pages is reliable and complete, notes on hazards, edibility and suchlike included here are recorded information and do not constitute recommendations. No responsibility will be taken for readers’ own actions. Full website terms and conditions.

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