Cymbidium insigne
A large terrestrial or rock-dwelling Cymbidium from the highlands of Vietnam, northern Thailand, Laos and Hainan. It sends up tall spikes of white to pink flowers from autumn to spring and is a key ancestor of modern standard cymbidium hybrids. It grows in rocky, grassy places in open montane forest at about 1000–2600 m, where the climate is mild and moist, with cool winter nights, a very wet autumn and a short, drier late winter.
Where it grows wild
The Flora of China lists rocky and grassy places in open forests and shaded, mossy cliffs. Other species accounts describe shallow, sandy soil among sandstone rocks in highland primary forest, often in the shade of low shrubs. The large pseudobulbs sit in thin, gritty, humus-rich soil or in rock pockets, with the long leaves in partly open light.
The Flora of China gives 1700–1900 m for Hainan, and other accounts give 1000–2600 m. Measured records span 1450–2500 m (median 1550 m).
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More Cymbidium
Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app.