Orchid Borealis

Dendrobium suzukii is relatively recently described species.  It belongs to Dendrobium section Formosae .  Although it is likely that this section will be revised in near future (e.g. molecular phylogeny has shown that D. trigonopus and D. jerdonianum do not belong to this section), the section contains about 50 species (Averyanov et al. 2016).  According to Averyanov et al (2016), a lot of wild collected plants entered orchid markets in Dalat city in 1999-2000.  It was then described in 2002 by Yukawa.  The species was supposed to be from two geographically separated regions; Lam Dong and Lai Chau provinces of Vietnam.  Since it hadn't been re-discoverd in nature for a long time after the initial discovery, some people even speculated that it is an artificial hybrid produced by a nursery.  However, in 2014,  Dr. Nong Van Duy and Mr. Nguyen Phi Tam rediscovered it in Southern Vietnam, in a primary forest near the junction of Binh Thuan , ...

Dendrobium officinale is a relatively wide-spread species, and they used to be relatively abundant in the past.  However, they are endangered from over-collection.  The purpose of the collection is not for orchid growers, but for its usage as a traditional Chinese medicine, "Tiepi Fengdou", which is the dried stem (cane, pseudobulb) of this species. The shortage in supply and the high price of the cane ($3000/kg; Ding et al. 2002) is driving the over-collection. The fresh stems can be chewed, juiced, or incorporated into cooking.  Traditionally, this herbal medicine was used for nourishing Yin by clearing away heat-evil, stomach digestive problems, cough suppressant, anti-cancer, and prolonging life (Ding et al., 2002).  While it is difficult to scientifically test some of these aspects such as nourishing Yin, some other benefits of D. officinale are confirmed by modern science (reviewed in Tang et al 2017).  Many compounds have been isolated from the speci...

It's been another warm winter in Alaska.  February is usually the coldest month, so we could get another cold snap, but the day length is significantly longer now!  It used to be pitch black by the time when we pick up our son at the kindergarten on the way home, but it's not dark any more!  It is a great time to be in Alaska. Many orchids have been blooming.  But it's been a busy semester, so I haven't had enough time to edit photos and make blog posts.  When I have a little bit of time and energy, I'd like to set the priority straigh, and I would rather play seriously with my son, Taiga, who will be growing up too fast.  Speaking of growing up, I started to play chess with Taiga.  He started to show a strong interest in Chess (and all kinds of board and card games).  I grew up with Shogi, a Japanese Chess, so I'm not too familiar with chess, so we are learning it together.  I started to read a classic chess book, "Bobby Fischer Teaches ...

I love the color of this flower!   Dendrobium vexillarius  is the most common species in Dendrobium section Oxyglossum  of New Guinea (Reeve and Woods 1989).  It can be found in Moluccas  (west of New Guinea), New Guinea , and  Bismarck Archipelago  (east of New Guinea) at the elevations of 1200-3500m.  While the availability of this species for cultivation is somewhat limited at this moment, it is a very popular species partly due to the amazing color palette of the species.  The species shows amazing variations in the color of flowers, and Reeve and Woods (1989) recognized 6 varieties.  The flower color includes blue, yellow, white, orange, pink/purple, and red.  These varieties represent distinct populations.  I surely hope that breeders will respect the wonder of natural variation, and try to preserve the varietal differences in cultivation. Description, distribution map and a key to varieties, derived from Ree...

Dendrobium violaceum occurs in the island of  New Guinea .  Although it is one of the largest species within this group of Dendrobium section Oxyglossum , the height of the plant is less than 30cm, and mine is about 15-20cm.  Two subspecies are recognized; D. v. subsp.   violaceum and D. v. subsp. cyperifolium (Reeve and Woods 1989).   D. v. subsp. violaceum has leaves which are 2-11mm wide, and occurs throughout New Guinea (elevations of 750-2000m).   D. v. subsp. cyperifolium is recognized by its narrow leaves of 0.75-2mm wide, and it occurs mainly in the western and northern parts of the island (elevations of 1200-1850m).  You can see the distribution map of the two subspecies in this link . A side note  about Dendrobium section Oxyglossum : Dendrobium is one of the largest genera in Orchid family (Orchidaceae), and several sections were proposed within the genus in order to clarify the evolutionary relationship. ...

Dendrobium sulphureum belongs to section Oxyglossum. Most species in this section are amazing miniatures that produce large flowers for the tiny plant body.  Many of us are captivated by them.  The bad news is that it is from mountain cloud forests of New Guinea, so it requires somewhat specialized environment.  Given the appropriate condition, it seems to be a rather robust plant even though they are tiny.  I haven't had this for long, and this is the first blooming. The contrast of the red lip and creamy white is stunning.  I got it in spring 2015 from Far East Agriculture Orchids.  The photos were taken in July 18, 2016, but the flowers opened in June, and the same flowers are still open in September, and they will last for a long time. I'm growing it with sphagnum moss in a clay pot under a cool condition (details at the bottom of  this post ).  It is getting fairly weak light for this species (photosynthetic photon flux density, PPF...