Neobathiea grandidierana

[naoki]

First bloom for me. This is from 2016 spring Madagascar import of Louisiana Orchid Connection. I didn't notice the flower shoots until it was too late to cut them. I hope that it will be ok.... I killed one before (from Malala), but the initial condition of LOC import was very good, so it is growing OK this time.

Note that when the flower opens, it is greenish (the one which is closer to the camera in the whole plant photo at the bottom, 2 days old). Then it becomes whiter (the first 2 photos, 7-10 days old).

A couple more photos in my Orchid Borealis blog post (link).


Neobathiea grandidierana on Flickr


Neobathiea grandidierana on Flickr


Neobathiea grandidierana (plant) on Flickr

 

[NYEric]

Nice, thanks for sharing. Is it fragrant?

 

[SlipperFan]

Cute flower. The moth that pollinates it must have a long proboscis.

 

[abax]

Naoki, your plants fascinate me yet again. The flowers
are quite pretty. I'd love to see the pollinator...a moth do you
think?

 

[naoki]

Angela, I was editing wikipedia a little bit yesterday, and I noticed the page for genus Neobathiea said that this species is pollinated by a long-tongued sphinginid hawkmoth, Panogena lingens. I guess this is the species: http://www.lt-wasserthal.de/page8/page41/page41.html His web page mentioned that there were two forms of this hawkmoth; long and short tongued froms, which sounds interesting!

Eric, there was very faint smell in the newer flower. The closest I could imagine was a squashed bullfrog on the road when it's raining. I know that it's not a good description, but it is kind of "raw" smell. It might have different smell for different time of the day.

 

[Secundino]

The closest I could imagine was a squashed bullfrog on the road when it's raining.

:rollhappy: Yay, scents! The flowers are intriguingly nice, very starry and shiny, like made from wax - is that a photographic effect or are the flowers as stiff as they look?
Never had seen one before, thanks for sharing!

 

[Ozpaph]

strange little thing

 

[cnycharles]

Mmm squashed bullfrog

The first picture, if you look with your eyes out of focus looks sort of like a bust of the statue of liberty


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[newbud]

That is one strange looking orchid. Thanks for sharing.

 

[naoki]

Secun, the petals/sepals aren't think like Phalaenopsis, but they aren't too stiff. It has the look of waxiness, but I think it might be exaggerated in the photos.

Charles, you are right, there is a similarity to the status of liberty. I should have hanged up the banner!

I sniffed flowers again at night, and it had more fragrant smell. The smell of squashed frog was more like the smell of rain + pond-like smell and a little bit of soil smell. So it isn't bad smell, more like the smell of forest. I didn't mean it to be rotten smell. But at night, there is faint floral smell.