365 days of orchids – day 407 – Mediocalcar decoratum
This morning the greenhouse is full of the delicate little flowers of Mediocalcar decoratum. This species is very accomodating and so we have plants in many sections including Warm Asia and Coll Americas which are the sections it seems to prefer.
The species comes from Papua New Guinea where it grows in shady forest up to 2500m. Mediocalcar decoratum’s small bell shaped flowers in orange and yellow suggest that the likely pollinator is Sun Birds. Sun Bird’s are Africa and Asia’s version of South America’s Humming Birds and we saw some lovely species in Rwanda.
We grow all our plants mounted which suits the plants habit and find newly divided plants are happiest cool and shaded in Cool Americas but once established the plants flourish in any section with a minimum above 10C as long as protected from strong sun in the summer which dries plants too much..
Discussion