Orchid Borealis

According to Masdevallias: Gems of the Orchid World by Gerritsen & Parsons (2005), Masdevallia lychniphora is found in a relatively small area in Peru; in the cloud forest between Chachapoyas and Pomacochas at an elevation of 2000m.  The species name (epithet) means ruby-bearing, which indicated the color of the bottom (lateral) sepals.  Mine seems to have deeper color, and it is more of purple than ruby red.  I wonder if the temperature influences the color in this species.  Does anyone know? The leaves show fair amount of damage.  I got this from Ecuagera about 1.5 years ago.  It was pretty stressed when I received it with the petioles (base stem) of the leaves turning black, and lots of leaves fell down. This was the initial condition: Fortunately, it was a big size plant, and it managed to survive the initial acclimation (it lost many more leaves during the process).  I was originally keeping it around 12.8-15.6C (55-60F) nigh...

I got this Phragmipedium lindleyanum var. kaieteurum 'War Eagle' x self from Marilyn LeDoux of Windy Hill Gardens .  I love buying plants from Marilyn because she is super-duper nice and helpful! Her plants are amazingly healthy, too.  Its parent 'War Eagle' is from Tom Larkin of Whippoorwill Orchids, who passed away in September 2013.   Marilyn didn't know where Tom got his plant from. Although the flower is fairly small (dorsal sepal length is 3cm, petal length is 4cm), I think that it has pretty color with lots of red. According to PhragWeb , this variety has spots on the corner of the lip-opening (and P. lindleyanum doesn't have it). I'm guessing this is the reddish spots over yellowish background on the front side of the opening, which can be seen in the photo above (the area is a little out of focus). There are 3 varieties in P. lindleyanum ; var. lindelyanum with the widest distribution, var. kaiteurum , and var. sargentianum with a disj...

I recently got this plant from Bela Vista Orchids of Brazil (so I can't take the credit of blooming it) as  Cattleya blumenscheinii .  But it doesn't quite look like the other photos of this species.  Can anyone comment on the identification?  I'm still learning about this group, and it is pretty difficult to gather taxonomic information.  I think there are some natural hybridization/introgression, too, which makes taxonomy more difficult. Cattleya blumenscheinii  is named in honor of Almiro Blumenschein, who was an executive director of Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation ( EMBRAPA: Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria ). From what I have read, this species grows in highly exposed rocky cliff around 1200m elevation in the state of Espirito Santo and Minas Gerais, Brazil.  There aren't so many info about this species, and mine looks somewhat different from the photos I have found (e.g.  SOF  and  IOSPE ).  The co...

In Fairbanks, we get -40F (=-40C) in the winter every year, so it is not economical to grow plants in a heated greenhouse.  To grow plants indoor well, we have to provide good amount of light.  There are many different types of light sources.  Many people are excited about LEDs because of its efficiency.  But I should note that there are large variation in the efficiency among LED fixtures.  Many older/cheaper LEDs weren't any more efficient than fluorescent bulbs (T8, T5, T5HO etc).  In this post, I'm going to talk about a recent T8 LED light bulb, which has amazingly high efficiency.  It is not still widely available yet.  The post below is a little technical, but the punchline is that the future is promising, and these efficient bulbs should become more available. T8-LED: There have been LED light bulbs which can be used in place of T8 fluorescent light bulbs. Until recently, the efficiencies of these T8 LEDs were not so great (similar or...

In this blog, I'm planning to share some photos of orchids and plants which I grow in Fairbanks, Alaska.  There are some challenges to grow plants in cold climate, and I'll try to share some of my cultivation methods, too.  When I moved from North Carolina to Alaska 12 years ago, I managed to kill all of my orchids.  Well, I had to re-learn how to grow orchids in this extremely cold place. Cultivation of plants and orchids requires both science and art.  That's why it is exciting to me.  As a professional evolutionary biologist studying evolution of plant reproduction, I try to apply scientific knowledge to cultivation.  Hopefully, I can introduce some of the scientific sides in this blog, too. I will also try to post about the wild orchids of Alaska.  There are indeed quite a few orchids in Alaska.  I have found only 4 species so far.  Here is a teaser, Calypso bulbosa var. americanum from Fairbanks, Alaska.  It is an amazing spec...