Last month we posted Stenoglottis longifolia and today we have the closely related Stenoglottis fimbriata.

The leaves form a basal rosette and are spotted in purple as is the the flower stem and the tiny leaflets up to where the flowers start.  The plants here are all first flowering divisions (and we have been able to put lots of similar plants in bud on our online shop. When plants mature they have 80cm spikes with up to 100 flowers (below)

The species comes from Eastern South Africa where it is found growing in moss and humus on rocks, banks and fallen trees in shaded forest and bush from the coast up to 1800m. This is a habitat we have explored around Durban where forest remnants have a distinct wet season and dry season and many plants including Clivia and sundews find a niche on moss covered rocks along with orchids.

We grow the species in our Cool Asia section where it flowers from September to Christmas and then loses its leaves. We then give it a dryish rest until new shoots appear in late February from which time we give steadily increasing water.