Ceraia escritorii

[mr. suarez]

Now, here's something you don't see everyday: I present for your perusal a plant called Ceraia escritorii, a species endemic to some provinces on southern Luzon and northern Mindanao in the Philippines. Like most other equitant-leaved ceraias, this species bear no pseudobulbs, and when not in flower might be mistaken for an Aporum. The flowers are 1.4 cm across (the range is 1.2 to 1.6 cm) by 1.8 cm long and do not open widely, but have this remarkable, heavy sweet scent at close range. The blooms typically last for only a day, although during rainy periods they can last for up to two.

The plant was originally named Dendrobium escritorii by Oakes Ames in 1915 and was named in honour of Luis Escritor, who found them in Guinayangan, Tayabas (now a part of Quezon), Luzon, during the period from March-April, 1913. In 2003 Mark Clements moved the species to Aporum, and last year I placed it to the old genus Ceraia (OrchideenJournal 17(1): 12 (&13), 2010).

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[lanhua]

Hi Wally, you are right, your plant can be very easily mistaken for an Aporum species. Could you explain to us the significant diffrence.
A very nice flower!!

[mr. suarez]

Between a Ceraia and a Dendrobium? The two share only three traits: sympodial growth, pollinia number and the presence of a mentum; if we delimit Dendrobium with just these three characters, we can practically expand the number of Dendrobium species many, many-fold, and can even include plants which are not even dendrobiums in the truest sense. I feel it is a shame that Ceraia should be sunk into synonymy under Dendrobium when it is 1. older than Dendrobium (established in 1790 by João de Loureiro; Dendrobium by Olof Swartz in 1799), and 2. when its members obviously form a natural group outside Dendrobium sensu stricto.

In a nutshell, Ceraia differs from Dendrobium in that plants may or may not have pseudobulbs, in having persistent leaves (vs. deciduous in Dendrobium), inflorescences which appear on terminal, leafless stem portions (axillary in Dendrobium), flowers which appear more often and in response to climatic conditions (vs. seasonal), small to (rarely) medium-sized flowers (vs. medium to large-sized), short-lived, membranous flowers (vs. long-lasting). Another curious feature of Ceraia is that it has many species which engage in a synchronized flowering behavior, wherein plants from over a wide range of distribution develop buds and open their flowers all at the same time.

[cdayinflorida]

Just beautiful!

[Brutal_Dreamer]

Thanks Wally! Cool and interesting orchid bloom.

Cheers,
BD

[mujacko2002]

Mabuhay!

@mr suarez....thank you so much for the information. How do you take care of it? thanks

[zainal abidin]

Very nice one.

[lanhua]

Wally, thanks a lot for your explanation.

[mr. suarez]

mujacko, it's one of those orchids that thrive virtually on neglect. I just placed in in a bright (not full sun), airy spot with regular waterings (I do allow it to dry in between waterings though), and that's it! In exchange, every now and then it would reward me with sweetly scented blooms.

[ang709]

Cool! I love the hairy looking lip!