Orchid Borealis

Angraecum viguieri is native to northern and central Madagascar (Province of Antsiranana and Toamasina , Cribb & Hermans 2009).  Thy occur in Humid, evergreen forest on plateau and mossy ridge-top forest from the elevations of 900-1100m.  Based on the elevation range, I was growing it at a warm end of intermediate temperature for 7 years; the max/min daily temperature is 29-27/21-24C (80-85/70-75F) in the summer and 18-21/16-18C (65-70/60-65F) in the winter.  It kept growing, but I didn't get any flowers.  In September 2021, I removed it from the mount and potted it.  That's why the stem has the bonsai-like bent.   I also moved it to a cooler area; the max/min daily temperature is 29/18C (84/65F) in the summer and 21/13C (70/55F) in the winter.  And I finally got rewarded with the fragrant flower this year.  The cooler area also gives more seasonal variation in the temperature, compared to the relatively constant temperature of the basement....

  This species was included in genus Mystacidium at one point.  According to Wodrich (1997), it is a rare species, and only found in a few coastal forest areas bordering rivers, around East London in the Eastern Cape and Durban in KwaZuku Natal. They are usually on the underside of twigs and branches not far above the ground at elevation range of 0-200m (Stewart et. al. 2006).  Intermediate temperature and dryer winter (e.g. watering once a week) is recommended (Wodrich 1997). I obtained my plant from Afri Orchids . I have been growing it at 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.  It seems to grow well, and particularly, the root growth seems to be fairly fast.  I might be giving a bit too much light, so I moved it a little further from the light (currently PPFD of 110 µ mol m -2  s -1 ). Note the green anther caps and fat, funnel-like spurs.  The phot...

Plants have been growing and flowering, regardless of the change in our world, but I haven't updated the blog for a while.  But this pretty orchid is in bloom, so I wanted to upload the photos. Jumellea is a moderately small genus with about 57 species (Rakotoarivelo et al. 2012).  Some species of Jumellea are similar to each other and difficult to identify (for me), but J. teretifolia is easily recognizable due to the cylindrical leaves (as the species epithet indicates).  The narrow and long flower parts give the elegant look.  This species is endemic to central highlands (1100-1500m) of Madagascar (Provinces of  Antananarivo , Fianarantsoa , Toamasina ; Cribb & Hermans 2009). Pollination biology of this species was studied by Nilsson et al. (1987).  Three interesting observations can be highlighted.  First, this species appears to rely on a single pollinator species.  Among 6 species of hawkmoths with long probosces (straw-lik...

Angraecum popowii is endemic to Madagascar .  It is from shady, highland Uapaca bojeri forests of Antananarivo , Fianarantsoa , and Toamasina (Cribb and Hermans, 2009).  The elevation range is 1200-1500m. According to the artificial key to section Aranchnangraecum by Cribb and Hermans (2009), the channelled semiterete leave is one of the key trait to distinguish this species from two related species,  A. linearifolium and A. teretifolium . The later two species have terete leaves, and the leaves are not obviously channelled, so this is a trait which can be used to differentiate without flowers.  In the photo below, I tried to show this channel on the top side of the leaves. Once they flower, A. linearifolium can be easily distinguished from the other two since it has completely different, spidery flowers.   A. popowii and A. teretifolium show similar flower shapes, but A. popowii has a larger flower; the sepal lengths are 30mm for A. popowii , 1...

Neobathiea is a small Angraecoid genus with 6 recognized species; N. comet-halei , N. grandidierana , N. hirtula , N. keraudrenae , N. perrieri , and N. spatulata .  All 6 species are endemic to Madagascar  and the Comoros  (Cribbs and Hermans 2009).  Among these, N. grandidierana seems to have the widest geographic distribution, and it occurs both in Madagascar and in the Comoro Islands.  Within Madagascar, it is found in  Antsiranana ,  Antananarivo,   Fianarantsoa , and Toliara , covering from the northern end to the southern end (Cribbs and Hermans 2009).  In the Comoros, it occurs in Anjouan and Grande Comore (Stewart et al. 2006).  The habitat of this species is in humid forest on west-faching slopes at the elevation range of 1000-1650m (Stewart et al. 2006).  In nature, this species seems to flower in spring to early summer. This plant came from Malala import by Louisiana Orchid Connection  (LOC).  During t...

Summer in Alaska is gorgeous, but too short.  But the summer is gone, and the leaves are already turning yellow; we'll have a busy month to get ready for the winter.  We had unusually wet summer, and we didn't have to water our outside garden at all!  Also, we had almost no smoke from the forest fire, which is unusual. I received this plant in summer 2015 from Malala Orchids when Botanica Ltd  was organizing the group order.  Unfortunately, this was my first and last order from Malala.  Malala has been rescuing orchids from rapid destruction of the forests in Madagascar, and went through the trouble of getting permits to export legally and properly.  The owner of Malala, Michelle Andriamanamihaja, passed away earlier this year.  Here is a link to a nice post about this by Gilles Grunenwald in his awesome blog. This plant was labelled as Jumellea intricata .  But when it flowered, it was not the correct identification.  I attempte...