Orchid Borealis

Four-spotted Chaser or Four-spotted Skimmer ( Libellula quadrimaculata ), the state insect of Alaska.  This photo was actually taken in May 30, 2015 at Ballaine Lake. The sixth annual Dragonfly day was held at Chena Lake.  It was sponsored by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and others. There were lots of fun activities for kids, including Dragonfly themed crafts and face-painting.  Saha Berry of Berry Balloons was twisting balloons to create dragonflies, butterflies, fish and other fun stuff, and kids were waiting long time to get one.  My son, Taiga, was so excited when he finally got a big dragonfly, but as usual, he managed to pop it within 1 hour (pretty much the same amount of time as the waiting line).  Oh well. This event is great for kids, but to be honest, I was as excited as my 4-year-old son.  The main part of this event is nature walk lead by John Hudson, one of the authors of a book Dragonf...

With back light, the flower looks quite different.  This is closer to what pollinator would see since the flower hangs down. Dracula sijmii is described by Carl Luer in 2002.  The type specimen was originally obtained from José Portilla of Ecuagenera in February 1997, but the original collection data is missing.  It is named after Antonius (Ton) P. Sijm of Netherlands.  Many of Mr. Sijm's photos are included in a book, Orchids: Masdevallia with its Segregates Including Dracula by Harry Zelenko (2014, Zai Publications).  According to a brief biography in this book (p.163), after his greenhouse got burned down in 1982, Mr. Sijm decided to focus on Pleurothallids.  He worked with Carl Luer, and has co-authored descriptions of many species. I obtained this plant recently (October 2015) from Mundiflora .  It was in a good condition, so it get acclimated quickly and it has been flowering quite well. I'm growing in sphagnum moss in a plastic net ...

The last couple weeks have been eventful for us. Unfortunately, I can't say that all of these events were nice; some events were unexpected and highly unpleasant.  My son, Taiga, got a second-degree burn on his thigh during the Memorial day camping in Anchorage.  This occurred 360 miles away from home, but it was fortunate that an emergency room was close to the campground.  I'm thankful that this didn't happen at a place where there is no hospital within a hundred miles (most place in Alaska, I think).  I appreciated all efforts of doctors and nurses who had to work during the holiday.   He could start to run after 1 week or so, and has been showing good recovery now. Although this was a painful experience for Taiga and us, I'm again amazed how tough the little boy is; he kept his spirit high, and his giggle was somewhat back by the next day.  We got to do some fun time fishing, biking, visiting a museum, and Chuck E. Cheeze's.  Particularly, Ima...

I got this plant from  Mundiflora  fairly recently (October, 2015) .  When I received it, it was a single growth plant with fruits attached to it (see the photo at the end of this post).  It quickly produced 3 or so new growths, and the original growth seemed to have faded away.  This was supposed to be a much showier species, Ponthieva maculata .  When the flower opened, it was obviously mislabelled.  Flipping through IOSPE, I found that min is very similar to Ponthieva collantesii ( IOSPE link ).  But I'm not 100% sure about the identification yet.  The botanical illustration of this species can be found in Swiss Orchid Foundation ( link ). The shape of the lip seems to be slightly different; in the illustration, the tip of the lip looks very narrow, but my plant (and the photo in IOSPE) has broader/less sharp tips. The lip is the top part in the photo above. According to Tropicos ( link ), this species was originally described by...