A phroogle of photographs, part 1

Phroogle: n. a reasonable-sized grouping of photographs, in a similar fashion to the way the word "herd" is used to describe a group of cattle. (<i>from Prem's idiotic dictionary, 7th ed.</i>).

Ok, folks. Strap on your seatbelts as we head around the globe on a photographic journey. First stop, the wet savannahs and pinelands of northern Florida. These areas are host to many beautiful species of flowers, including orchids. Some of the non-orchids seen in these areas include:

Blue Flag Irises

Spider Lilies

Pine Lilies

Orange Bachelor's Buttons

But the real subject of our hunt is the Snowy Orchid, Platanthera nivea. It is a not-very-common-but-not-very-rare orchid inhabiting moist, open spaces. Its white flowers glisten in the sunlight with an almost bluish cast. To add to their attractiveness, the flowers are mildly fragrant, with a scent not unlike orange blossoms:

Snowy Orchid (Platanthera nivea)

Snowy Orchid (Platanthera nivea), flower closeup

Snowy Orchid (Platanthera nivea), flower superduper closeup

P. nivea blooms sporadically from late May into late July, with a peak blooming in early June. It is a deciduous terrestrial orchid.

See the next post for part 2 of our journey.

Our orchid trip-o-matic now zips into high gear, circling about half the globe to Thailand, where an orchid related to P. nivea grows. Habenaria rhodocheila, the pink form (which Eric Christenson wants to separate out into H. erichmichaelii, leaving the species bereft of its type form), grows in areas that experience seasonal wet and dry seasons...to cope with this, it grows deciduously like its American cousin, dying back to an underground tuber in the winter time. This pink form, similar to its American cousin, and dissimilar to the orange form of the species, is nicely fragrant, smelling of oranges and maraschino cherries.

Habenaria rhodocheila, pink form

Habenaria rhodocheila, pink form

here, for comparison, is the orange form of the species:


Habenaria rhodocheila, orange form


Habenaria rhodocheila, orange form

And here is a side-by-side photo of both forms (no thumbnails in this section, click the hotlink to see the photos):

The does not show much difference between the two...it's hard to tell, but the pink form flower is, overall, larger by a factor of around 125%.

The profile view makes the differences much more apparent. The lip is held at a different angle relative to the "cap" (composed of the dorsal sepal and two petals), being held at a 90 degree angle for the orange form and more like a 75 degree angle for the pink form. The spur, however, is the most markedly different, curling under the lip in the orange form (and being only 1.5 inches long) and arching backward in a graceful 'S' from the lip in the pink form (and being 2.5 inches long).

Our orchid trip-o-matic now heads back to Indonesia, where we find Grammatophyllum scriptum growing. This is the uncommon citrinum form of the species, which bears apple-green, mildly fragrant flowers ranging from 2 inches to 1.5 inches in diameter (depending on the location on the spike). Flower spikes on this plant are about 3 feet long.


Grammatophyllum scriptum v. citrinum, plant


Grammatophyllum scriptum v. citrinum, spike


Grammatophyllum scriptum v. citrinum, flower


Grammatophyllum scriptum v. citrinum, 2nd flower shot

We now head back to the new world, where the breeding of two species of Encyclia has produced a very nice primary hybrid. Epidendrum (Encyclia) Flossie's Greenfly is a hybrid of Encyclia steinbachii and Encyclia mooreana. It bears 3-foot tall branched panicles of flowers, each about 1.5 inches across. They have a strong scent of cinnamon with a hint of vanilla and cloves.

Epidendrum (Encyclia) Flossie's Greenfly


And that concludes our tour, ladies and gentlemen, please remain seated until the vehicle has come to a complete stop.

---Prem

missing link...profile view of two Habenaria color forms:

Prem, what a great post! That took some time.

Beautiful Grammatophyllum, by the way....

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Louis J. Aszod