(I wrote an article about this species in 2011, here I revisit some of my old observations and add a few new ones)
This orchid comes from Burma,
Thailand, Vietnam, and the Yunnan province in China. In spite of its large area of distribution it
is rare in the wild.¹ Since its
discovery in 1883, this plant was always rare, and for a long time it was
totally lost to cultivation.² Plants of
this species were discovered in northern Thailand and then reentered
cultivation.² Unfortunately, even after
it was rediscovered, this plant remained generally unavailable for many years,
one could only enjoy its beauty in the occasional photo in a book or an orchid
magazine.
When I first saw the flowers this
orchid in a book, I was immediately captivated by their unique characteristics. That was in 1990, back then I could find no
source of these orchids in the United States.
I know this sound quaint in the age of the Internet, but back then you
had to peruse through orchid magazines, select those vendors that might have
the orchid, write a letter asking for a checklist, and then wait for weeks or
months to see if you would get an answer.
In 2006 I finally found a source
and was able to buy three plants. Unsure
how they would adapt to the local conditions, I mounted one on a branch and
potted the other two in wire baskets.
The plant in the branch did poorly and even thought it bloomed, it did
so weakly and eventually died. It died
even after I had removed it from the branch and planted it in a basket like the
other two plants.
The two plants in the baskets did
well and two years later bloomed. They have
bloomed unfailingly every year, sometimes several times in the year, since that
time. The two plants have responded in
slightly different ways to basket culture.
One of the plants has grown slowly and is still well within the confines
of the basket, the other one was a vigorous grower and grew to the edges of the
basket and has continued growing on its sides.
I have never repotted these plants as I suspect that damage to their
root system would severely set them back.
As for their culture, I followed the advice to grow them like I grow my Dendrobium farmeri.³
As you can see, all plants
responded in a different way to cultivation under my conditions. One peculiarity is that the most vigorous
plant produces keikis from time to time every time a cane loses its base to
rot. The other two never produced
keikis. These plants are unbothered by
most pests in my area. A single pest is
capable of damaging them severely is snails.
When a new cane is growing snails have been known to attack the tender
leaves. This has resulted in the plants
being set back and weakened. The result
was poor blooming in the cane that sustained the damage. On rare occasions, canes that are growing
have developed rot in the growing tip and died.
It is unclear what has caused this.
Considering how rare this plant
has been in cultivation, it was a bit surprising that it has proven to grow well
with little special treatment. It can
withstand the local dry season with ease, with no watering, even when a whole
month goes without raining. Outside of
its growing season I give it no fertilizing.
The two plants produce
inflorescences at any time between late April and July. Different canes of the same plant can bloom
all together or at different times in the same year. My plants have produced inflorescences with
as little as two flowers and as many as thirteen. I thought the flowers were slightly fragrant
until one occasion when I brought a plant in the house. In late morning I found that the flowers had
become powerfully fragrant, much more fragrant than I had ever noticed. Next
time this orchid blooms I shall see if this was a onetime event or whether it
always happens but I had never noticed.
Flowers can vary slightly in color and size of the lip but I have not
checked if this a characteristic that varies between the different plant or the
different bloomings.
One thing I have noted is that my
plants have remained relatively small, with canes that rarely grow over six
inches tall. I have seen photos in the
Internet of plants that seem to have canes taller than seven inches, but this
has not been my experience. Only once
has my plant produced a cane larger than seven inches, a cane that was produced
in the 2013 growing season and that topped its growth at eight inches (20
centimeters). The size of the mature
canes of this plant has been cited as being between 6 and 9 inches (17 and 23
cm)¹ and five and eight (15 and 20 cm).³
Given the relatively small adult
size of this plant, it often is overlooked when visitors come to my garden and
are greeted by Grammatophyllum and Vandachnis that literally tower over all
other plants. But when they are in
bloom, the unique, canary yellow flowers of this orchid are truly eye
catching. In my experience this is a plant that is well
worth growing.
¹Baker, Margaret L. 1996. Orchid Species Culture. Dendrobium.
Margaret L. Baker and Charles O. Baker.
²Menzies, David. 1991. Orchids.
³Schelpe, S., Steward, J.
1990 Dendrobium an introduction to the species in cultivation.
