Cattleya intermediaGraham ex Hook.

WFO wfo-0000821985 Accepted WFO 2026-06 8 photographs CC0 / CC BY

Plate 1 figs. a–h · 4 observations

This species has been photographed under an open licence only 4 times, so some figures below are different views of the same plant, taken on the same day, rather than different individuals. They are usually different parts of it: the leaf, the flower, the bark.

Cattleya intermedia, photographed by Fernando Sessegolo
fig. a Fernando Sessegolo, CC0 1.0 / 2021-09-19 / obs. 158903106
Cattleya intermedia, photographed by Kahio Tiberio Mazon
fig. b Kahio Tiberio Mazon, CC0 1.0 / obs. 55360602
Cattleya intermedia, photographed by Fernando Sessegolo
fig. c Fernando Sessegolo, CC0 1.0 / obs. 158903396
Cattleya intermedia, photographed by Victor Farjalla Pontes
fig. d Victor Farjalla Pontes, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 115639467
Cattleya intermedia, photographed by JG
fig. e JG, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174436949
Cattleya intermedia, photographed by JG
fig. f JG, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174436969
Cattleya intermedia, photographed by JG
fig. g JG, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174436986
Cattleya intermedia, photographed by JG
fig. h JG, CC BY 4.0 / obs. 174437009

Every figure is a research-grade observation under CC0, CC BY or CC BY-SA, rehosted with the photographer’s name, the licence and the observation it came from. Photographs under a NonCommercial licence are excluded from this site and are never stored, which costs us a great many pictures and is not negotiable.

Native range 3 botanical countries

Regions where Cattleya intermedia is native: Brazil South, Brazil Southeast, Paraguay Brazil SouthBrazil SoutheastParaguay
Native distribution of Cattleya intermedia, after Kew’s World Checklist of Vascular Plants. Introduced, extinct and doubtful records are excluded, so this is where the plant is from, not everywhere it now grows.
RegionTDWG codeContinent
Brazil South BZS SOUTHERN AMERICA
Brazil Southeast BZL
Paraguay PAR

Region boundaries approximated from Natural Earth (public domain) and mapped to TDWG World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD) level-3 botanical countries (Brummitt 2001). Indicative, not the official WGSRPD geometry.

Where it actually grows measured, from 117 observations

Condition 5th percentile Median 95th percentile
Coldest month, mean daily low 9.3 °C 13.1 °C 19.3 °C
Warmest month, mean daily high 25.0 °C 26.8 °C 29.3 °C
Annual rainfall 1,217 mm 1,677 mm 2,253 mm
Rainfall in the driest quarter 207 mm 295 mm 387 mm

It is barely found anywhere that freezes. This is not care advice and it is not a forecast. It is a measurement: we sampled the climate at every one of the 117 research-grade observations of Cattleya intermedia that carry a coordinate, and this is the range those places actually span. The 5th and 95th percentiles are used rather than the minimum and maximum, because a single cultivated specimen in a heated conservatory should not widen a tropical plant's range to the Arctic.

This is not a hardiness zone. A USDA zone is the average annual extreme minimum temperature. The figure above is the mean daily minimum of the coldest month, which is a different quantity and is typically far warmer. Reading one as the other would place a plant several zones too warm, so we do not publish a hardiness zone, because we do not have one.

Also published as 25 synonyms

A synonym is not an error. It is a record of botanists disagreeing, in print, about where this plant belongs. Each of these was somebody’s considered answer.

  • Bletia lindleyana (Rchb.f.) Rchb.f.
  • Cattleya amabilis B.S.Williams
  • Cattleya amethystina C.Morren
  • Cattleya aquinii Barb.Rodr.
  • Cattleya gibeziae L.Linden & Rodigas
  • Cattleya intermedia f. amethystina (C.Morren) M.Wolff & O.Gruss
  • Cattleya intermedia f. parthenia (Rchb.f.) F.Barros & J.A.N.Bat.
  • Cattleya intermedia f. parthenia (Rchb.f.) M.Wolff & O.Gruss
  • Cattleya intermedia var. amethystina (C.Morren ex Lem.) Fowlie
  • Cattleya intermedia var. angustifolia Hook.
  • Cattleya intermedia var. gibeziae (L.Linden & Rodigas) L.Linden & Rodigas
  • Cattleya intermedia var. macrochila Barb.Rodr.
  • Cattleya intermedia var. pallida Lindl.
  • Cattleya intermedia var. parthenia Rchb.f.
  • Cattleya intermedia var. punctatissima Sander
  • Cattleya intermedia var. superba F.Buyss.
  • Cattleya intermedia var. variegata Hook.
  • Cattleya lindleyana Rchb.f.
  • Cattleya loddigesii var. amethystina C.Morren ex Lem.
  • Cattleya maritima Lindl.
  • Cattleya ovata Lindl.
  • Epidendrum canaliculatum Vell.
  • Epidendrum intermedium (Graham ex Hook.) Rchb.f.
  • Laelia lindleyana (Rchb.f.) G.Nicholson

and 1 more.

Sourcesevery claim on this page

  1. World Flora Online Plant List. accepted name, authority, classification. CC0. Retrieved 2026-07-12.
  2. iNaturalist. photographs and flowering annotations, CC0 / CC BY / CC BY-SA only. per photograph. Retrieved 2026-06-27.
  3. Kew, World Checklist of Vascular Plants (WCVP v16). native distribution by TDWG level-3 botanical country, and life form. CC BY 3.0. Retrieved 2026-06-04.

We publish what we can source and we say so when we cannot. This page has no care advice and no toxicity claim, because we do not yet have those from a source we can cite.