This one has a special place in my collection because I like to think I discovered one of its parents growing wild here In SC. This is a cross of Ep. conopseum (now renamed magnoliae) X LC Richard Mueller. When Richard Mueller was made, it was registered as a cross of Brassavola nodosa X Laelia milleri. L. milleri has now been reclassified as a Cattleya, so Fiftieth Annvesary is now Epidendrum X Brassavola X Cattleya = Vaughnara.

I first learned of Epi. conopseum soon after I started growing orchids, (over 40 years ago) and found it growing in the deep swamps near where we lived at the time in SC. It is native to a band that runs from Texas to NC, and down into Mexico. The plants in Mexico are considered a different variety, but all are very close in appearance. It is the most cold hearty epiphyte known. (temps in its SC habitat do occasionally get into single digits, but the water in the deep swamps surely modifies that a bit)