Scottish Rock Garden Club Forum
Specific Families and Genera => Pleione and Orchidaceae => Topic started by: Paul T on August 18, 2009, 01:16:04 PM
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Howdy All,
I couldn't work out where to put this little gem, so I started this topic for the Pleurothallid family (Masdevalias, Pleurothallis etc). If anyone has a better place for this then please feel free to recommend it (or if a moderator, shift it).....
This is Pleurothallis schiedei, a strange little thing that sort of looks a bit like a spider body with weird little white dangly things that move in the slightest breeze (a bit like little chandelier crystals). The whole flower is maybe 1cm across. Very different, and I hadn't expected to succeed with it to be honest. I paid far too much for it at the time, but I am thrilled to have now had since last year, and have it coming back into flower again. Yeah!! ;D
Please click on the pic for a larger version. If pics are too large, please let me know.
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Paul,
What an extraordinary flower; never saw the likes before.
Paddy
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Paddy,
Neither had I, until I saw and bought it. ;D The stem keeps producing flowers for a while too, so it isn't like a single flower on the end of the stem..... it produces another bud, then another.. etc. I have 3 or 4 stems forming at the moment, with just the one with a flower open as yet.
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What a flower, 1cm with all those fancy bits, :o Your Macro shot certainly shows it off to perfection, Paul ;)
Can you show the whole plant ?
Looking up this lovely thing I came across this amazing gallery of images - do you know it?
http://www.pbase.com/glazemaker/pleurothallis
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What an amazing flower Paul. I'm glad you didn't lose it.
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You've improved my education yet again Paul, that's another one I hadn't heard of before.
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Pleurothallis schiedei ;) ..... now Stelis villosa.
(they realised that 'Pleurothallis' was just a dustbin of little weird jobs, and have split them up in to natural groupings now. There are thousands of species.......there is an American who has made a career of sorting them all out, and Icones Pleurothallidinarum had reached its 29th volume, last time I looked .....so don't even think of a National Collection ;D)
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Robin,
I'll take a pic of the whole plant for you today.
Giles,
Thanks for the name correction (I've updated the original posting, but the image is still spelt incorrectly). I misread the tag, obviously enough. ::) I didn't realise it had had a name change..... but I might wait a while before changing the name, in case they change it back again as so often happens in orchids. ;D I love these little quirky things, although the Masdevallias themselves are sometimes a bit of a struggle for me (mainly with heat in summer unfortunately). I grow any that I have inside under lights, as the house is cool enough to allow them to survive. I had a reasonable collection of about 20 of them that I lost over 10 days a few years ago..... we had a week of 36 to 41'C and the hosue just heated up too much for them. Have had better insulation installed since then, so I have started to collect a few of them again. For those who don't know, so many of these plants find it terminal when they get much above 28'C (mine have had higher than that, but briefly). I certainly proved that warmth will kill them the year I lost the whole collection in one go. ::)
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You might already have come across these:
http://www.pleurothallids.com/
and for some nice pictures of Teagueia:
http://www.loujost.com/index.htm
and somewhat embarrassingly if you have any queries about a particular species I have all 29 volumes of Icones ;)
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a fascinating group of plants for sure; i did have a few miniature orchids, grown indoors, some years ago, pre- a couple of moves...
my problem is watering enough...lol
plus, they are MUCH more expensive to acquire than cacti, for example!
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There is a nice party trick you can do with S. villosa and a comb. Create a static electrical charge on the comb and bring it near the "hairs" on the flower and watch them move. It will entertain the kids (and the not-so-young ;D) for ages.
David
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You might already have come across these:
http://www.pleurothallids.com/
and for some nice pictures of Teagueia:
http://www.loujost.com/index.htm
and somewhat embarrassingly if you have any queries about a particular species I have all 29 volumes of Icones ;)
........ and the anorak Giles? :P ;D
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..no, I'm far too busy with my collection of bus tickets to go out and buy an anorac..
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;D ;D
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Robin,
As requested, here is a pic of the whole plant of Pleurothallus shiedei. Not much to look at really. ;D Another flower is about to open at the moment. The other one didn't last that long, which is strange as they seemed to last quite a long time last year. ::)
Also attached are a couple of pics of Dryadella zebrina. One showing more of the plant, and the other a closeup of the flower with flash to show up some of the colours more strongly etc. Another teeny tiny thing with flowers only a cm across. 8)
Enjoy.
Please click on the pic for a larger version. If pics are too large, please let me know.
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Just come back from a break...thanks Paul for posting the Pleurothallus shiedei plant - it certainly has lush leaves for such a diminuitive flower! I love the markings on the Dryadella zebrina flower and the flower has bags of character even if it is tiny.
I see you keep them quit wet in the pots, presumably they have been outside in rain? Pleione and Orchidaceae are part of my being from early years, they are just so fascinating in their diversity and survive where other plants give up the ghost!
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Just caught up with this thread, fab plants Paul.
I've always loved the Masies and the Draculas, but, as the story so often goes, I only seem able to kill them!
I stopped trying to grow them ( from young seedlings from Dick Warren ) 10 years ago, or is that stopped killing them? :-\
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A somewhat belated thanks for the responses. It is going to take me AGES to catch on everything.
The Pleurothallus shiedei seems to like the Sphagnum moss, and it stays much wetter there (and obviously is enjoying it). Most Masds that I grow in Sphagnum moss die, so I tend to move them into a coir chip that seems to be working for my conditions.
Chris,
I have found that you need to find the right growing media for your conditions. As I mention above, sphagnum moss, which suits many other people, is almost always terminal for me here. The other big thing with these of course is the summer temps not going over 28'C if at all possible. According to the books that is the temp, and certainly I lost my whole colletion a few years ago when we had a week of 38-41'C and the house got up to the mid 30s and above. Literally within a fortnight every one of them died as they had been too hot. Since then we have had the ceiling and walls better insulated and now we barely get above 30 in the house at all, and then only for short periods, and they seem to be fine with that.
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Hi Paul,
Given where they grow that all makes a great deal of sense. Sadly my window of opportunity for growing these little treasures
has passed. It would be too expensive I fear to maintain their minimum temperatures and it would be tough maintaining the lower temps
in the summer combined with the right humidity levels, no, I fear I shall have to admire them from afar and from the pages of the forum!
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Chris,
Lets not mention the humidity bit to my plants..... they don't get nearly enough of it and still do OK. ;) The maximum temps in summer ARE something that needs to be attended to though. Ours were solved with the better insulation of the house, which is why I have started collecting a few of the Pleuros again. At the moment while I am not working I am misting the plants once every day or two, just to try to increase the humidity, but when I was working they never got that and yet still survived just fine. I also have a small fan near them for some air movement, but other than that they get nothing special at all.
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Paul,
I remember the days...had a fish tank in Aberdeen, never saw fish, only Masies and Draculas and some other little orchids on bark. Twas easy to keep the humidity levels up!!
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Nah, mine are in the open, not a terrarium. I'd be worried about too much humidity and rotting them if I put them in a fish tank. :o
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LOL, reinforces the point that what works for one grower in one set of conditions doesn't always work for another!
Orchids that once grew poorly for me in the UK now grow superbly here, whilst others that were happy in the UK
have simply given in!!! :'(
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Or Chris, it could just be my crappy and "feast or famine" watering technique!! :o
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Howdy All,
A few of the Pleurothallids on our show table at last night's (so all photographed with a flash) local Orchid Society meeting.....
Masdevallia 'Mary Staal' x triangularis
Masdevallia 'Charisma'
Masdevallia Partizan 'Cinnamon' Just amazing colourations on some of these. Just a few of the lovely Masdevallia hybrids we had there.
Plus
Porroglossum meridionale, a tiny species, not much bigger than my spider-like Pleurothallis shiedei that I have posted previously.
Please click on the picture for a larger version.
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Wicked, Paul, what shapes and colouration - would love to know more about these orchids in the wild, do they live in deep jungle?
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Robin,
I "think" that most of the Masdevallias are South American, up in the jungles in the Ecuador region etc (as an example). I think they're quite widespread, and very, very diverse. Commonly called "cat's bum orchids" as the basic flower shape on some of the larger species in particular is very like the shape of a cat walking away from you with it's tail held high. ;)
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;D ;D ;D
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Commonly called "cat's bum orchids" as the basic flower shape on some of the larger species in particular is very like the shape of a cat walking away from you with it's tail held high.
And to think we are often told of how "romantic" orchids are! :P
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Anthropomorphism I reckon, we regard our flowers as maybe works of art, and rightly so, but maybe forget that the bottom line from the plants point of view is 'sex'. Lets face it we rarely regard the sexual organs of other kingdoms with an air of romanticism...... :D
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Chris,
But some of us still link the idea of sex with romanticism, even if we're not thinking about the sexual organs of other kingdoms...... (And oh boy there are a lot of comments I COULD make here that I am definitely not going to make! :-[)
See Maggi, I CAN get myself out of the gutter occasionally. ;D ;) Barely. :o
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So what kind of flower would you be, Paul , to maximise on your potential... ::) 8) :P :-* :D
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Knowing my luck I'd probably end up as the dead-horse arum, with a smell to live up to the name. ::)
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;D ;D ;D ;D :P :P :P
Each to their own - wonder if that perfume would sell well in duty free for novelty value?
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Just realised I had written all that stuff about not growing Masdevallias again, and I went and bought five of them! Looking through your pics ( again! ) Paul shows how irrestisatble the Pleurothalid alliance really is!
This time I have my east facing room, humidity tray, ventilation fan, I I have put a small tray of water infront of the fan to boost the humidity of the 'blowing air'. Lower winter temps are actually easier to acheive here than they were in the UK with a centrally heated house or a greenhouse maintained for intermediate type orchids!