habenaria medusae

[cnycharles]

one of my tropical terrestrial orchids has actually survived and is flowering! I bought two tubers of habenaria medusae from michael ooi's orchid firm in malayasia when he came to the u.s. last May to sell at the redland orchid festival in florida. one of them was for a fellow orchid club member, the other I put into a clay pot with some potting soil, coarse sand, fine bark and some other things to allow it drain better. I haven't fertilized it at all since I think I overdid that with my australian pterostylis which died, but for the last month a flower spike has been emerging and I was surprised to see the other day that one of the buds was 'exploding' with thin, white streamers. though the flower wasn't completely open, I took a few pics 'just in case' something happened like my snapping the flower spike off or it's biting the dust... i'll take and post more in a few days when more flowers are open.

very cool!

whole plant view

side view showing nectary

closeup - the fringes of the lip are still straightening

 

[NYEric]

Looks like you tased it! oke:

 

[SlipperFan]

This species is so cool!

 

[Jorch]

Looks cool! please post an update picture when more flowers open! :clap:

Mine's just leaves right now. still waiting....

 

[paphioboy]

Great species.. I didn't know medusae is tropical... And on it goes to the wish list... hehe

P/s: Australian terrestrial species are very sensitive to phosphorus fertilisers..

 

[cnycharles]

thanks paphioboy, the pterostylis sort of turned an orangish color (or brown); maybe they had a bit too much phosophorus or I fertilized and then let them get too dry afterwards which scorched them. they rotted from the bottom of the stem up...

 

[JeanLux]

the bloom is too cool, and the pics are great Charles!!!! Jean

(I have one Hab. radiata, that started a spike some weeks ago!)

 

[Pete]

awesome! mine made two spikes this year! its about two weeks behind yours..

 

[Bolero]

Gorgeous and amazing form! Thanks for sharing.

 

[paphioboy]

I wouldn't think Pterostylis would die from being too dry.. Too wet could be the reason.. They do rest for about half a year in nature... and summer is scorching hot in OZ..

 

[Clark]

Eye candy!
Please update.

 

[NYEric]

I'm going to dig into my pterostyli tonight to see how they're doing.

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Nice healthy plant you've got there Charles! They are pretty easy as long as you keep them dry in winter (or you'll end up with a puddle of mud) :rollhappy:

 

[NYEric]

I wish I could post photos from here, the pterostyli were fine. little corms w/ small white growths, I'll post photo this weekend.

 

[cnycharles]

I wish I could post photos from here, the pterostyli were fine. little corms w/ small white growths, I'll post photo this weekend.

eric! your persistence in asking me to check my own pterostylis has paid off! I decided to skim through the pot that had my newer bulbs (the ones I planted right away; the first/older ones were set aside for a while) this morning while I was preparing to do dishes (plants are over sink), and I found a tiny shoot from a corm coming up from the first one, so I carefully covered it and didn't bother to check the other two varieties in the pot. the planter has been sitting in the kitchen window and I haven't watered it since the tops of the old plants died back. the first pot had no survivors when I checked it out so I assumed that the second pot had none, either. glad I procrastinated in throwing them out, and checked before I dumped! hopefully the others are also okay and they come up and flower this year.

paphioboy, you're right about over-watering; I checked the culture sheet that I have for pterostylis and though the pots seemed 'moist' enough most of the time, the sheet mentions a lot of rain in the natural habitat, so I figured I needed to water them 'more'. I'll bet that's what did in the first pot of them.

I'll be taking some more pics of the habenaria now that a few more flowers have opened and posting them soon

 

[Yoyo_Jo]

Wonderful photos! How cool. Looking forward to your updates for sure. :clap:

 

[paphioboy]

Charles, 'a lot of rain' is relative... In most parts of Australia (South especially), rainfall is very low compared to teh rest of the world.. and they receive more winter rain and very dry summers..

 

[paphioboy]

For clarification, I was referring to Pterostylis, not habenaria medusae..

 

[cnycharles]

thanks for points
rechecking the culture sheet for pterostylis curta it only list between 2-3 inches of rain in summer or at most (spring) so not sure why I thought they would have to be 'wet'... though that isn't really dry by any means

 

[goldenrose]

:clap::clap::clap: