Orchid Borealis

I purchased this plant as Bulbophyllum potamophilum  from Far East Agriculture in May 2017.  It is obviously incoorect when you compare it to the illustration on Orchids of New Guinea web site.  It matches well to the illustration of B. himantospealum .  Indeed, many photos of B. potamophilum on internet are actually from B. himantosepalum , and I haven't seen a single photo of correct B. potamophilum yet. It is a fairly recently described species (Vermeulen & Sieder 2015), and there isn't much information available. Since the original description is based on a plant cultivated at Universität Salzburg Botanical Garden , habitat information is not available, but it was supposed to be imported from Papua Province of New Guinea (i.e. Western half of Papua New Guinea). Orchids of New Guinea web site has the most information, and they states that it is cool growing.  However, I have been growing it fairly warm; max/min daily temperature is 27/18C (80/65F)...

Happy New Year!  I was a bit busy, and didn't manage to update this blog for a while. The species is endemic to north and central Taiwan (Lin 1975, Wu et al. 2010).  Su (1975) mentioned that it is usually found on branches of Quercus spp (oaks). In nature, it flowers in December to February ( Flora of China ), which matches with the flowering time under my cultivation. The illustration is available here .  The elevation range is 1000-2000m ( Flora of China ), 1500-2000m (Su 1975), 1500-2300m (Lin 1975, Wu et al. 2010).  Accordingly, it has been growing well under a cool-end of intermediate temperature; the max/min daily temperature is 29/18C (84/65F) in the summer and 21/13C (70/55F) in the winter.  I am growing it under a moderate amount of light (180-190 µmol/m^2/s with Apogee SQ-520 quantum sensor).  My plant originally came from Andy's Orchids as Ascocentrum pumilum .  It is a lovely miniature species with the leaf length of about 4-5cm. ...