It was all action at lunch time today with Orchid Project refreshing thier knowledge of orchid botany starting with the parts of an orchid flower. Here is a dissected Cymbidium erythraeum. Can correctly identify the petals, sepals, lip column and pollinia? (Thanks to Emily) As well as being great fun this work is all part […]

We have featured several miniature orchids in the last week and here is a really spectacular little species. The plant shown has now completely filled its 8cm basket and produces a multitude of little starry flowers about 2mm across from the bright green 2cm leaves. This tiny miniature is native to cloud forests in Colombia […]

Here is Ed using one of our wifi microscopes. In preparation for our forthcoming shows (Bournemouth Orchid Show and the London Orchid Show) and to help our partner schools in Rwanda and Sarawak, students are preparing information about orchid seed. This is seed of Dendrobium thyrsiflorum photographed by Ed. By using a 1mm scale on […]

Yet another new species for 365 days of orchids is the delightful miniature member of the Oncidium family Rhychostele rossii. As you can see from the photos we have two distinct clones of this species. The first has larger pinker flowers with browny-purple spots while the second produces more slightly smaller flowers and is white […]

This cattleya species has been likened to ‘granny’s nickers’ by some students, more attracted to miniature orchids, but I still love its enormous, dramatic, over the top flowers in soft lilac. This large flowered orchid (measured at 24cm across) is another Colombian species, and it grows in lower montane forest. It is similar to Cattleya […]