Melanoporphyreum means black and purple which is a pretty good name for this epidendrum from Peru with unusually coloured flowers.

Epidendrum melanoporphyreum is a close relative of Epidendrum paniculatum which we featured last week and grows in similar cool wet forests at around 1500m altitude so is well suited to our Cool Asia section. The flowers are long lasting and produced on branched spikes.

The flowers are larger than in most of this group of epidendrums making this a great species to grow. We have large numbers of this species in our propagation lab and so lots will be available in flask next year.