The school greenhouse is looking a picture with the low winter sunshine filtering through the plants and in our Cool Americas section it pick out the many small diverse flowers typical of this section. One very cute little species is this one from South America.

Ada brachypus is miniature member of the Oncidium family and comes from the cloud forests of Ecuador where it grows in moss from 1200 to 2400m altitude. Plants grow to about 8cm high.

We find this plant does best in 3cm pots and baskets amongst miniature masdevallia species in Cool Americas where we keep it well watered throughout the year.

The flowers are produced from maturing growths and, although small, plants quickly form clumps and so produce many flowers together to give a charming display. This is yet another example of the wonderful diversity of Orchid Species.