Tuesday, November 24, 2020

Nervilia aragoana first flowering

I have been impatiently waiting for any signs of life from my various Nervilia species since September. So far, only my Nervilia aragoana has woken up, sending up a beautiful inflorescence recently, with what looks like three more shoots just beginning to emerge from the potting mix. This Nervilia sends up its inflorescence first, before its leaves. The flowers are a beautiful green and white, are small, but quite pleasantly fragrant. The flowers are also sensitive to changing light intensity and close up progressively as light decreases during the latter part of the day. According to the Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia, Nervilia aragoana is quite widespread through Asia, and is also native to Queensland, Australia and also New Caledonia.

I managed to get a few photos of the inflorescence emerging, demonstrating the speed of its growth over a few days, as well as photos of the complete inflorescence and individual flowers.

Nervilia aragoana inflorescence 20 November 2020

Nervilia aragoana inflorescence 21 November 2020

Nervilia aragoana inflorescence 22 November 2020

Nervilia aragoana inflorescence 24 November 2020

Individual flowers 24 November 2020


Sunday, November 8, 2020

New surprises

Those of you who have known me for a while will know that I have been on the search for Bonatea speciosa for a long time now. At the beginning of the year I started putting out my feelers, looking for anyone in Australia who might have some Boantea speciosa plants that they might consider parting with. I found such a person and made a new orchid friend in the process. I waited for several months before finally receiving a beautiful plant that had several tubers. The tubers that were seperate from the main plant I potted up separately. I lost one, but the remaining three are doing well and adjusting to my local conditons.

Bonatea speciosa

In a seperate interesting event, my Spiranthes odorata set seeds after flowering earlier in the year and I put it aside to dry out a little before repotting. I put it next to a large pot of vegetables and seeds must have blown into that pot. In the next three months I has several Spiranthese odorata seedlings popping up in that pot, under the vegetables. The potting mix that I had used for the vegetables must have contained a mycorrhyia that was compatible as a symbiont for germinating the seeds. I have since moved these seedlings into their own comminuty pot and they are growing rapidly.


Spiranthes odorata seedlings