Cattleya trianae Cattleya trianae Cattleya trianae (Lind. & Rchb. fil), also known as "Flor de Mayo" ("May flower") or "Christmas orchid", is a plant belonging to the Orchidaceae family. It grows as an epiphytic orchid, with succulent leaves, endemic to Colombia where it was nominated as the national flower in November 1936. That year, the National Academy of History of Argentina asked the Latin American countries to participate in an exhibition with the representative flowers of each country. The Colombian government gave the botanist Emilio Robledo the task to designate the most representative flowering plant of the country. The choice of "Cattleya
Flowering plant about 130 million years BP. However, one study has suggested that the early-middle Jurassic plant "Schmeissneria", traditionally considered a type of ginkgo, may be the earliest known angiosperm, or at least a close relative. In 2018, scientists reported that the earliest flowers began about 180 million years ago, 50 million years earlier than thought earlier. Nonetheless, circumstantial chemical evidence has been found for the existence of angiosperms as early as 250 million years ago. Oleanane, a secondary metabolite produced by many flowering plants, has been found in Permian deposits of that age together with fossils of gigantopterids. Gigantopterids are a