A close relative of yesterday’s Cleisocentrum is this stunning small flowered, terete leaved orchid. Cleisostomas are small flowered relatives of Vanda with a range of growth habits but rather similar prettly little flowers that tend to open successively along relatively long flower spikes.

This is the ‘bent’ cleisostoma referring to the curved terete leaves. It is a warm growing species from South East Asia, India and Malaysia where it grows pendulously. We have seen related species growing in Sarawak,Arunachal Pradesh, North East India, and in Laos, in a wide range of habitats from cool mountain forest to hot dry lowland forest. We recently fount the very similar species Cleisostoma teretifolium in Baku reserve in Kuching (below) that shows the natural habitat we are trying to replicate in our Warm Asia section.

We find Cleisostomas work well mounted where their attractive growth habits can be enjoyed and the plants are able to dry out well between waterings. As Cleisostoma arietinum is a warm growing species we hang it high in our Warm Asia section where temperatures are highest. The bright light caused the leaves to turn purple which is how we have found similar species in the wild.