Orchid Borealis

Utricularia blanchetii is found only in central Bahia , Brazil, and occurs in damp sand among rocks by streams (Taylor 1989).  The elevation range is 850-1750m.  This species belongs to section Aranella , in which 9 species are recognized, all from tropical South America with one species also occurs in Africa.  It is similar to  U. parthenopipes , which is also from Bahia, and often co-occur with U. blanchetii .  The lower lip (petal) of the corolla is supposed to be 10-15mm long, which is much longer than 4-6mm of  U. parthenopipes (Taylor 1989).  The lower lip of my plant is about 8-10mm, so it is a bit at the small end for U. blanchetii .  In addition to the flower size, the shapes of the upper lip and spur are different. Here is an excerpt of the Taylor's (1989) artificial key distinguishing these two similar species: Corolla 1cm long or longer; upper lip transversely oblong, c. 6mm wide; spur acute, somewhat longer than the lower lip ...

Paphiopedilum dayanum is named after a Victorian orchid grower and orchid painter, John Day.  It was discovered by Sir Hugh Low in 1856, and Day flowered it in 1860 (Cribb 1998).  The species has very small geographic distribution, and it has been only found on the lower slopes of Mount Kinabalu in Sabah, Borneo at the elevations of 300-1450m (Cribb 1998). The green/yellow tesselated leaves are beautiful, and the flower is pretty big (about 12 cm across).  I also think that the pattern on the backside of the lip/pouch is beautiful. I got this plant from Ooi Leng Sun.  I'm growing it in an intermediate condition; daily maximum and minimum temperature of 29/18C (85/65F) most of the year.  The light intensity (photosynthetic photon flux density, PPFD) is 220 µmol/m 2 /s (about 1500 footcandles) for 13 hours.  This is probably unnecessarily higher than what it needs. It is interesting that there are small horns at the bottom right and left of ...

The first Arctic grayling of this trip. For Memorial day weekend, we decided to take our camper to our first camping trip of this summer.  We chose Nome Creek in BLM White Mountain National Recreational Area  as the destination.  This was the place where we tried Taiga's first tent camping in 2015, when he was 3 years old; we had a great time on contrary to our worru how he would do with tent camping.  This time we had the luxury of a camper, 1968 Fireball.  In the last month or so, Taiga has been interested in gold panning for some reason and watching YouTube videos.  Also he brought home his drawing of us gold-panning from school.  So we decided to try gold-panning at Nome Creek.  As an added bonus, the creek has nice Arctic graylings, and we can fly-fish there. The area has two official campgrounds, but many people just camp right next to the creek at the designated gold panning area.  After 1.5-2 hours of drive from Fairbanks on Ste...

Polystachya pubescens is a compact and cheerful species from South Africa , Swaziland and Eastern Zimbabwe  ( link  to a distribution map).  While it is common species in South Africa, it is either rare or extinct in Zimbabwe ( Flora of Zimbabwe ).  In South Africa, it occurs in  Eastern Cape , KwaZulu-Natal , Limpopo , Mpumalanga  according to this  South African Biodiversity Institute (SANBI) site .  This is the summer rain fall region, and the plants experience a prolonged dry season during the cooler winter months (Stewart and Hennessy 1981). The genus Polystachya is a moderately large genus with approximately 250 species.  It belongs to the subtribe Polystachyinae, which is a part of the tribe Vandeae, containing  Angraecum and Aerangis in addition to Vanda , Aerides , Phalaenopsis , Thrixspermum etc.  This genus is somewhat unique since it shows pan-tropical distribution (i.e. occurs in the tropics of A...

Last weekend was a big day.  It was Taiga's first fly fishing experience!  Well, it wouldn't be called as a big adventure by any means, but it was still a big deal for me and my 5 year old son, Taiga.  So I just wanted to write this down for myself before I forget. Somehow, fly fishing is a big deal to me; I'm probably romanticizing it for some reason.  It could be the influence from Norman Maclean's novel, A river Runs Through It , one of the first novels which I managed to read completely in English.  When the ultra-sound image showed the small bump between his legs, I didn't think much about a boy or a girl (we were happy with either).  But after a couple days, it started to sink into me, and a lot of thoughts started to flow through my mind.  Can he handle going through the somewhat cruel and hierarchical world of boyhood?  I was one of the smallest kids in the class.  I didn't get bullied much but I had to be "smart" to survive. ...

Taiga found a giant puddle.  Lots of rocks in convenient location. In the twenty-first century, who has guessed that people all over the world had to march for science ?  Even in the small town of Fairbanks, hundreds (or maybe thousands) of people showed up to Ryan Middle School, and we marched along the Airport Way.  The weather was nice with blue sky, and temperature was reaching to warm (for Alaskan) 10C (50F), thanks to the climate change.  We still have snow on the ground, but it has been melting and many good puddles where kids can jump in. The march went smoothly and peacefully without an incident, but there were small stone-throwing riots (the video clip at the end of this post).  Here are a couple photos from the scene. Many dogs were participating, too.  This lab was carrying a stick with a sign: "Stick up for science".  Some animals are definitely more reasonable than the Dumb Tard. "Labs for Science" Some kids liked th...

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...