Cleisostoma merrillium – 365 days of orchids – day 1417
We are devoted to sharing the wonderful diversity of orchids and today’s is a really unusual species – we have no other species with similar flower colour.
This remarkable orchid is endemic to Mount Kinabalu where it grows in wet evergreen forest above 1000m. The species has striking greyish, blue flowers with a purple anther cap and field observations show that the flowers are ant pollinated which explains the clustered flowers on very short spikes.
We grow the species in small baskets from which the plants grow in a relaxed upright fashion. Plants seem very at home in our Warm Asia section with a minimum of 17C with some shade, throughout the year, amongst other species native to the amazing forests of Kinabalu.
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