Curtis Botanical – Plate 8041 – Orange Trumpet Orchid

Original antique black-and-white botanical print from Curtis's Botanical Magazine — Plate 8041.

Plant: Mormodes Buccinator var. aurantiacum (Orange Trumpet Orchid). Native to: Mexico / Central America (tropical forest).

The column of this orchid is spring-loaded and twisted — designed to physically catapult pollen onto visiting bees. Named for the trumpeter muscle in the human cheek. The mechanism is essentially a botanical catapult, documented with full Victorian seriousness in a London botanical journal.

Printed in London. Each print is an original page removed from a bound volume of Curtis's Botanical Magazine, the world's oldest continuously published botanical journal (founded 1787). Uncolored plate. Sold individually. Minor age-related toning consistent with 19th-century paper.

This plate originated with the Royal Horticultural Society and passed through Wheldon & Wesley, one of the great natural history dealers of the 20th century. We came into the archive by accident and have spent the time since trying to share it as widely as we can.