Bulbophyllum tingabarinum Garay, Hammer, Siegrist 1994, has proven to be wildly attractive to a species of local fly.

The flowers of Bulbophyllum tingabarinum opened about two days ago.  This morning when I walked into the garden I found the flowers had attracted four or five flies that were walking all over the flowers.  I sampled the fragrance and found it stinky and disgusting.  However it appears the flies found it highly attractive.  The fragrance, at least in my orchid is not strong, you have to get close to the flowers to "savor" the full effect.  Most of the flies fled when I moved the orchid to a new location to take photos of the flowers.  But a stubborn one hanged for dear life from the flower and would not leave it even when I got very close with the camera.  The fly seemed particularly taken with the lip, in particular the area just under the column.  This particular fly was too small and light to properly activate the pollination mechanism in the flowers of Bulb, tingabarinum.   The fly seemed to be looking for something in the flower and explored every single part, the sepals, the petals, the lip and even the column.  When I finished taking photos, the fly was still busy and oblivious, moving over the inflorescence.

Bulbophyllum tingabarinum Garay, Hammer, Siegrist 1994, on bloom in July.

I brought thisplant at a 2012 meeting of the Orquidistas de Puerto Rico, group that originated in Facebook.  I wanted it because I was seduced by the beauty of the photos of this plant in the Orchidsforum.com group.  You can see these photos in Flickr, just look for PiotrM photostream and be prepared for your mind to be blown away.

 I found the plant surprisingly small given the size of the flowers.  Initally my plant had a few pseudobulbs, only two of which seemed to be large enough to bloom.  At home I put it in a spot where it could get full morning sunlight up to 10 am and the rest of the day it got the dappled sunlight that filtered through the canopy of trees that surround my house.  The plant didn't do anything until February 2013.  Then it started producing new growths with impressive vigor.  Unfortunately this period of the year is in the start of the dry season in locality.  So everyday I had to drench the plant so that it would not abort the new growths due to lack of moisture.  I also fertilized it after every watering with a weak fertilizer, I waited until the water had stopped dripping to fertilize the plant. 

By May the plant had finished producing pseudobulbs.  In late June I saw the first signs of an inflorescence, the first one opened its flowers in July 26.   The plant has opened three inflorescences and two more are on their way.  The bright color of the flowers is quite eye catching.  If its performance so far turns out to be the norm, this Bulbophyllum with become my third most floriferous Bulbophyllum plant, the champion is Bulb. lepidum and on second place is Bulb. blumei.

Until recently I had never seen these plants in local collections.  However in the last year a number of my friends have adquired this plant.  Given that we live in different locations it will be interesting to see how this species performs under the various conditions.