I have just been out to my greenhouse and had to share a photo of this magnificent miniature orchid. We posted Barbosella handroi in October so this one  doesn’t count as an orchid of the day. The plant posted in October (see below) is from the same flask but has brown flowers rather than the creamy/yellow of the specimen plant flowering today (top). The photograph shows just one side of the ball of plant so if anyone has time to count the flowers and double the number that would be great.

This tiny orchid – the leaves are just 1cm long  – produces the most extraordinary display every autumn, with flowers from old and new leaves that almost hide the plant.

Barbosella handroi is native to cloud forest in Brazil and we have seen the species clothing the upper branches of tall trees in primary Brazilian cloud forest at Macae de Cima in our trips there in 2000 and 2006. The forest here was damp and shaded and cool at 1200m altitude. Even in the dry season (we visted in October and again in March at the end and the start of the dry season) with little rain, the forest was dripping from mists and dew every morning.