Coelogyne nitida

[Dorsetman]

There is an old-established nursery in UK who sell this plant - and do very well with it too. They used to show at Chelsea Flower Show - very big and prestigious show in London - lasts all week - the Queen and the nobs have private viewing on the first day, etc etc ; They used a bank of this plant - hundreds of them, across the front of their 30 foot wide stand. Tremendous scent from them, always caused a stir. ( The firm does not show there now - London is far too expensive ). However, the colour in the lip is variable between orange, lemon and not at all, and they give each one a different varietal name - this is v. lemoiniana.
But they call it C. ochracea not nitida. Kew says the two are synonymous, and nitida is the right name. But they say, Kew are wrong - this is ochracea, not nitida. And both the present proprietor and her father were members of the RHS Committee for very many years. All of which I find rather curious. I have seen nitida in the wild - it grows on the top of the highest mountain in Thailand ( Doi Inthanon ) and the Thai floras all call it nitida, and I think it has pseudo-bulbs of a different shape. I shall never know !

I have several plants of this species , trying to grow one ( or more ) into a specimen. I'm not sure if this is the same lone I have shown before or not.

[Keysguy]

tomato, tomahto. still pretty Geoff.

[Sheryl]

Interesting! And a lovely flower Geoff!

[Chris in Hamilton]

Great looking flowers. Looks more well behaved than a lot of coelognye.

[Arne]

There is an old-established nursery in UK who sell this plant - and do very well with it too. They used to show at Chelsea Flower Show - very big and prestigious show in London - lasts all week - the Queen and the nobs have private viewing on the first day, etc etc ; They used a bank of this plant - hundreds of them, across the front of their 30 foot wide stand. Tremendous scent from them, always caused a stir. ( The firm does not show there now - London is far too expensive ). However, the colour in the lip is variable between orange, lemon and not at all, and they give each one a different varietal name - this is v. lemoiniana.
But they call it C. ochracea not nitida. Kew says the two are synonymous, and nitida is the right name. But they say, Kew are wrong - this is ochracea, not nitida. And both the present proprietor and her father were members of the RHS Committee for very many years. All of which I find rather curious. I have seen nitida in the wild - it grows on the top of the highest mountain in Thailand ( Doi Inthanon ) and the Thai floras all call it nitida, and I think it has pseudo-bulbs of a different shape. I shall never know !

It seems to me that nitida has much more pointed pseudobulbs than ochracea. At least my plant has that:

[Dorsetman]

It seems to me that nitida has much more pointed pseudobulbs than ochracea. At least my plant has that:

Exactly - I do agree. There is also a difference in proportions of the flowers ; nitida is squarer, nearer to landscape. ochracea is definitely portrait.

[JDT]

Beautiful!