Another April regular in our collection is Abdominea minimiflora.

Minimiflora means ‘tiny flowered’ and this species lives up to its name. The species is found in Thailand, Malaysia and the Philippines and grows as an epiphyte (on trees) or a lithophyte (on rocks) in hot lowland rainforest. This is habitat that we have explored extensively in Sarawak where there is a great diversity of tiny orchids that we often found low in the forest on trunks and lower branches where the shade gives protection from extreme drying by the hot sun in dry periods. There is rainfall throughout the year and so we spray this species daily but in our Warm Asia section (Min 17C) it dries out quite quickly after watering. The species is related to Vanda and so has no pseudobulbs, and uses its thick roots as water storage.

The long lasting tiny flowers are about 1mm across with many produced in succession on a pendulous spikes up to 10cm long. The span across the leaves is just 5cm but our plant seems determined to become a specimen against the odds and is developing additional growths and so eventually for a clump. The plant produces lots of roots when grown mounted and we hang it high in our Warm Asia section where it gets a daily watering from the hose.

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