Pholidota chinensis – 365 days of orchids – day 780
This lovely free flowering orchid is native to warm forests in Southern China and Vietnam where it experience a wet summer monsoon and a cooler dryer winter when it flowers.
We find it enjoys warm temperatures in Warm Asia and although we grow it in a basket to show off the lovely pendulous flowers we work hard to keep it well watered in the growing season from March until September. Flowers are produced from the centre of new growths every spring.
We have two clones of this species which are very different in growth form with this clone having longer bulbs and longer flower spikes. The flowers however are very similar.
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Do you have a photo of the other clone?
Is this orchid related to dendrochilum magnum? The flowers look very similar. Very beautiful!
Hi – Pholidota is closely related to Coelogyne and many species were once called Coelogynes. Dendrochilum does share a common ancestor with Coelogyne and pholidota not too far back in time although the distribution of dendrochilum is more southern in South East Asia.
Very interesting. Thank you