This species is from Peru, where it grows high up on the trunks of trees in wet mountain forests. Psychopsis is a genus of only four species of orchids distributed from the West Indies and Costa Rica to Peru. The name comes from Greek, psyche meaning butterfly, and opsis, meaning resembling, referring to the butterfly like appearance of the flowers. The butterfly orchid is rumored to have started the European "Orchidmania" of the 19th century.
