Dendrobium pugioniforme – 365 days of orchids – day 1558
Our second Australian orchid of the week is this remarkable species with fleshy pointed leaves along a pendulous rhizome. Our specimen plant (shown here) is now over 2m long after twenty years of growing and the whole thing is covered in very attractive flowers with light green petal and sepals, and a white and pink lip.
The flowers begin to appear on our plant in early March and the last ones go over at the end of April. As can be seen from the photos the flowers are non-resupinate (upside down with the lip at the top) and produced in profusion from all along the pendulous stems.
We grow our plant mounted on a largish piece of cork bark and we spray the plant daily, it hangs up where it gets good light in our Cool Asia section.
Discussion