With under a month to go until the opening of the British Orchid Show and Congress we are starting to wonder which of our orchids will be in flower for our big weekend.

One we are really hoping will still be inflower is Stelis polyantha. The exquisite spikes of tiny pinky brown flowers really need to be seen to be appreciated and really demonstrate the beauty of small flowered orchids.

Stelis polyantha is a small flowered species from Ecuador where it is found in cloud forest at around 3000m. The small size of the flowers is made up for in the number of flowers per spike and the number of spikes produces that give a pinky ‘cloud’ around the plant when in flower.