Cymbidiym Orchid

Most commercially available Cymbidiums are hybrids derived from various species collected from the foothills of the Himalayan mountains. British botanist and explorer Sir Joseph Dalton Hooker—who was a colleague of Charles Darwin—embarked on an expedition to the Himalayas between 1847 and 1851. Hooker gathered the Cymbidium species that were crossed to create the hybrid Cymbidiums we see today.

Cymbidium insigne Matilda Smith for Curtis’ Botanical Magazine, 1910.
Watercolor on hot press paper, 2025