Bulbophyllum lemniscatum

Happy New Year!  In Alaska, we have been enjoying unusually warm winter over the winter break, but the temperature has finally dropped to below -34C (-30F).  Playing outside isn't fun when it is this cold.

I purchased this Bulbophyllum lemniscatum fairly recently (spring 2018) from Tropical Exotique of Thailand (Manote Quahphanit), and this is its first bloom for me.  According to Parsons and Gerritsen (2013, p.188), this species is from Thailand, India, and Myanmar (elevation of about 400m).

The unique feature of the flowers are the appendages of the sepals (I think each of dorsal and lateral sepals has one appendage).  This appendage moves around in a peculiar way with slight breeze.  My son noticed it from a distance, and he thought that there was a some creature in the orchid enclosure.

There are several species in the Bulbophyllum section Lemniscata, and two other species have similar appendages. The appendage of B. lemniscatoides looks longer and skinnier.  B. tripaleum appears to have a much more compact cluster with smaller number of flowers.

It is kind of difficult to show the individual flowers, but in the photo below, you can see the petals, lip, hairy sepals, and how the appendages are attached.

This species produces two leaves from each pseudobulb, and it is deciduous.  It flowers in the winter after the leaf drop.  The flowers seem to last for a long (at least one month).  The phots below are from December 5, 2018 when the flowers started to open from the top side.  You can see the open flowers and buds in the photo below.

The buds have the fully developed appendages, but you can notice the color is different; the appendages of buds are light green with wine-red colored stripes, but after the flower opens, the wine-red dominates.

You can see the cool bumpy pseudobulbs in the whole plant photo (from Dec. 5, 2018):

It is supposed to be a warm grower, but somehow I left it in a cooler growing area; I grew it at the cool-end of intermediate; max/min daily temperature of 29/18C (84/65F) in the summer and 21/13C (70/55F) in the winter.  I'll probably move it to a warmer area next spring.  Since this is the first year of growing it, I'm not sure what it likes.  But I reduced watering to once a week after the leaves were dropped.  Once I learn more about its culture, I'll update the information here.

Literature Cited:

• Parsons, R. and M. E. Gerritsen. 2013. A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species. Volume 1.  Redfern Natural History Productions (link to the publisher's site).