John M
Orchid Addict
Paph. helenae 'Charlie' update
Now that the other bud had opened, I wanted to post an update. Notice that in a couple photos, there's a little fly that landed on a bloom. I watched it walk around the rim of the pouch before it tried to land on the staminode. When it tried that, just as is supposed to happen, the fly slipped and fell into the pouch. However, then it half crawled and half flew out of the pouch, bypassing the stigma and pollinia. It was just a little bit too small to be properly captured by the pouch and forced to crawl out of the back of the flower, past the stigma and then past the pollen. It's just as well because this flower has already been pollinated with pollen from a different helenae. Still, it was cool to see the "event".
It's interesting to note that often in orchids, orange and yellow flowers will fade with age. However, this plant's flowers darken with age. The flower on the shorter stem is a couple weeks behind the other one and is noticeably less intensely coloured. It was very pale when it first opened and has darkened up considerably; but, it's not yet caught up to the first flower.
Now that the other bud had opened, I wanted to post an update. Notice that in a couple photos, there's a little fly that landed on a bloom. I watched it walk around the rim of the pouch before it tried to land on the staminode. When it tried that, just as is supposed to happen, the fly slipped and fell into the pouch. However, then it half crawled and half flew out of the pouch, bypassing the stigma and pollinia. It was just a little bit too small to be properly captured by the pouch and forced to crawl out of the back of the flower, past the stigma and then past the pollen. It's just as well because this flower has already been pollinated with pollen from a different helenae. Still, it was cool to see the "event".
It's interesting to note that often in orchids, orange and yellow flowers will fade with age. However, this plant's flowers darken with age. The flower on the shorter stem is a couple weeks behind the other one and is noticeably less intensely coloured. It was very pale when it first opened and has darkened up considerably; but, it's not yet caught up to the first flower.
