Lycaste Lindl.

Abstract

The British botanist John Lindley established Lycaste in Edwards’s Botanical Register in 1843. Based on morphological characters, he separated this group of orchids from the genus Maxillaria Ruiz & Pav. The generic name has been lectotypified by Lycaste macrophylla (Poepp. & Endl.) Lindl., based on Maxillaria macrophylla, a species published by E. Poeppig & L. Endlicher in Nova Genera ac Species Plantarum in 1835. The name comes from the Greek and according to Lindley “It is a fanciful name, Lycaste was a beautiful woman”, probably from Sicily, alluding the beauty of the flowers.