Coelogyne ochracea , v.lemoiniana
Some element of mystery here, about what the correct name is, for this lovely species
. It's one I grew in my earliest collection, more than 50 years ago , and which one of our UK nurseries has made a speciality of. And I always knew it under the ochracea name, and the nursery still sell it under that name . Our biggest (?) flower show in UK is the Chelsea show, and this nursery exhibited there for 50 years or so ( they don't now - London is a very expensive place , and their sales don't pay the costs) but for many of those 50 years they had a great bank of these plants right across the front of their stand. They still sell them - in fact I bought this one a couple of days ago ; my original plants died out when I tried growing warmer for the sake of Vandas and Catts. Now I';m growing cooler again, this is one orchid I have to have.
They are scented too - a bitter sweet lemony scent.
The mystery is that the books ( Jay too) say it is a synonym of Coel.nitida. Even the Kew monograph on Coel' says so. But they all describe nitida as having conical bulbs , and as can be clearly seen ( I hope) this little beauty does not have conical bulbs, but ones shaped and indeed sized like my fingers - I have big hands - and no-one could possibly call them conical !
I have seen C.nitida growing in the wild, with , indeed, conical bulbs, and flowers of different proportion to these .
I am going to carry on calling mny plant C.ochracea, and maybe one day I can have a discussion about it at Kew, and put them right - or be put right.
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