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This species comes from India and
Thailand.¹ I brought some small
seedlings about a decade ago. They
proved to be easy to care for and grew well under the climatic conditions
(warm) that are prevalent in my local area.
Unfortunately the plants turned out to be vulnerable to infestation by
hard brown scale. The plants were
successfully treated for this insect pest but they apparently suffered
considerably and were weakened by the scales. Scales are an insidious and persistent pest
that needs constant vigilance to keep under control.
My plants spent several years
without blooming. The flowers in the
photos of this post are the first ones since the infestation. My plants come from seedlings that were the
product of crossing two plants, not from meristem cloning of a selected
plant. As a result my two plants produce
somewhat different flowers. One produced
mostly red flowers whose petals at times separate. The other produces flowers that are variable
and can be solid red, stripped in red and green and even have one red sepal and
one green/red stripped sepal in the same plant.
The flowers in this blooming of
my plant are few and small compared with the inflorescences of an awarded clone
that is in optimum conditions. However I
expect that in coming years my plant will grow stronger and better. A selected clone of this species can have
lateral sepals measuring from 13.5 to 15 cm, hopefully my plants will some day
approach this size.¹
¹Siegerist, Emly S. 2001. Bulbophyllums and their allies: A
grower’s guide
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