KyushuCalanthe
Just call me Tom
- Joined
- Jan 12, 2008
- Messages
- 8,195
- Reaction score
- 489
A couple years back I began to garden a vacant back yard that a neighbor so graciously offered for me to use. The ground in this place is very wet year round so I had to build elevated beds to grow most plants. One such bed is home to various woodland plants. Here are some of the orchids I have planted there that are currently in flower.
Cypripedium formosanum - this is all one clump. In the background you can see Cyp. japonicum just opening and still in bud as well.
Nearby is a clump of Calanthe sieboldii (left) and its natural hybrid with C. discolor, C. x takane (right). These aren't quite fully open yet, but I took a shot anyway.
Nearby is a natural stand of Calanthe discolor. This group has around 20 stems, all flowering, and they seem to be clonal, and so this is an old group. This clone is a cut above most for this species.
Back at my house I have some native epiphytes flowering too. Here's Thrixspermum japoncium. I find these guys fallen on the forest floor, blown down off their precarious perches on the outermost twigs of cedar trees. Not an easy orchid to grow.
A rare relative to Thrixspermum is Gastrochilus matsuran. This too is a twig epiphyte, mostly on cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), but also sometimes is found on the boles of hardwoods. Both are tiny plants. The ones pictured here could easily fit in the palm of your hand.
One of Japan's more celebrated epiphytes is Dendrobium moniliforme. This is a pretty typical looking flower for the species, but this specimen always flowers 2 or 3 weeks ahead of the others. Once common in the wild, it is essentially collected out in the Fukuoka area.
Not really an epiphyte, Cymbidium goeringii is yet in flower. I have around 6 different clones of the wild green variety that can yet be seen in the surrounding forests. These babies smell divine!
I'll post more shots as things come into flower and develop more.
Cypripedium formosanum - this is all one clump. In the background you can see Cyp. japonicum just opening and still in bud as well.
Nearby is a clump of Calanthe sieboldii (left) and its natural hybrid with C. discolor, C. x takane (right). These aren't quite fully open yet, but I took a shot anyway.
Nearby is a natural stand of Calanthe discolor. This group has around 20 stems, all flowering, and they seem to be clonal, and so this is an old group. This clone is a cut above most for this species.
Back at my house I have some native epiphytes flowering too. Here's Thrixspermum japoncium. I find these guys fallen on the forest floor, blown down off their precarious perches on the outermost twigs of cedar trees. Not an easy orchid to grow.
A rare relative to Thrixspermum is Gastrochilus matsuran. This too is a twig epiphyte, mostly on cedar (Cryptomeria japonica), but also sometimes is found on the boles of hardwoods. Both are tiny plants. The ones pictured here could easily fit in the palm of your hand.
One of Japan's more celebrated epiphytes is Dendrobium moniliforme. This is a pretty typical looking flower for the species, but this specimen always flowers 2 or 3 weeks ahead of the others. Once common in the wild, it is essentially collected out in the Fukuoka area.
Not really an epiphyte, Cymbidium goeringii is yet in flower. I have around 6 different clones of the wild green variety that can yet be seen in the surrounding forests. These babies smell divine!
I'll post more shots as things come into flower and develop more.