William Jackson Hooker established the genus Encyclia in 1828 while Chair of Botany at Glasgow University. The genus was named for the lateral lobes of the labellum (lip petal) which encircle the column. The lobes apparently help guide pollinators past the anther and stigma within the column.

In 1841, Hooker became Director of the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew. In the following years, most Encyclia were lumped into the genus Epidendrum. Rudolf Schlechter realized Encyclia were sufficiently unique and 'reclassified' the plants back to Encyclia in the early 1900s.

Encyclia have pear-shaped to spherical pseudobulbs and one to three strap-like leaves. The butterfly orchids bloom in early summer. Butterflies will take nectar at the small flowers, but are not pollinators of these plants. Pollination is performed by small bees which can negotiate the complex column.

Carlyle Luer wrote, "When a pollinator enters the flower, the anther lid is forced closed, thereby protecting the pollinia. After having visited the nectary, the insect retreats from the flower and brushes pat the rostellum, rupturing a fine membrane which releases a viscid substance onto its back. As it continues to emerge, the anther lid is lifted and the exposed...pollinia readily adhere to the agglutinous back [of the bee]. The pollinia are then pulled from their cavity to be ferried by the courier into the next flower. As it [bee] enters, the sticky stigma readily accepts the pollinia, and as it departs, [the bee] repeats this particular mechanism of cross-pollination."