Not afraid to show its tougher, larger female side; Cycnoches Jean E. Monnier (Cyc. barthiorum x Cyc. cooperi)

Female flower

Inflorescence of male flowers

Male flowers

The genus Cycnoches produces flower that can be male or female.   The male flowers are normally smaller and more numerous, the female flowers are larger and fewer in number.  My plants of Cycnoches Jeane E. Monnier (Cyc. barthiorum x Cyc. cooperi) would bloom several times a season with inflorescences of small papery male flowers.  But on one occasion one of the plants produced a female flower. 

The plant produced a single female flower.  The female flower was big, much bigger than the male flowers. The floral segments of had a heavier texture and it had a different color than the male flowers.  The male flowers, because they were relatively thin textured become spotted and decay quite easily, the female flower was longer lasting. 

 

My experience cultivating Cycnoches is paradoxical.  They grew well, flowered abundantly and few pests bothered them.  They thrived, that is until they died.  All the plants died the same way.  One day I would find a sunken yellow spot in the stem and in a few days the spot would spread and the plant would rot away.  Cutting the plant in pieces in an effort to save a least a piece, didn’t work.  Some pieces of stem would endure for a time and then they would start producing shoots, only to start rotting away.  Even Cycnoches barthiorum, a plant that I grew for a whole decade in spite of its reputation as a difficult plant, eventually succumbed this way.