After yesterday’s unusual blue orchid we have a different version of ‘blue’ today with the coerulea variety of Cattleya maxima.

Coerulea means blue but in this case the flowers are a very pale grey version of blue but despite this they are elegant large flowers with the delicate shape and intricate lip characteristic of Cattleya maxima.

Here is a reminder of the more normal variety

The two plants out together show the wonderful diversity present in so many orchid species and we would not be without either.

Rather excitingly we have seed germinated of a cross between the two varieties and it will be lovely in about five years time to see how these turn out.

Cattleya maxima is native to South America from Venezuela down to Peru. It grows in forests from sea level up to 1500m and so is warm growing.

Today we have one of our stranger orchids with very unusual blue grey flowers which we find rather difficult to photograph accurately.

This remarkable orchid is endemic to Mount Kinabalu where it grows in wet evergreen forest above 1000m. The species has striking greyish, blue flowers with a purple anther cap and field observations show that the flowers are ant pollinated which explains the clustered flowers on very short spikes.

We grow the species in small baskets from which the plants grow in a relaxed upright fashion. Plants seem very at home in our Warm Asia section with a minimum of 17C with some shade, throughout the year, amongst other species native to the amazing forests of Kinabalu.

Our Stenoglottis area in our Temperate section is a picture this week with multiple sprays of small pink spotty flowers. We have a mixture of Stenoglottis longifolia – originally donated as seedlings in vitro by Keith Andrew in 1995 – Stenoglottis fimbriata – purchased soon afterwards – and the hybrid between the two species which we raised from seed at the end of the 1990s.

Today’s species is closely related to Stenoglottis fimbriata (day 996) and is also a terrestrial species from South Africa. It is found on mossy banks in the Drakensberg Mountains and so is a really cool growing orchid. We grow the species in our Temperate section with a minimum winter temperature of 4C and vents that open at 10C. We keep plants wet all summer but let them dry out from the end of December when the leaves turn brown and fall off.

The species differs from Stenoglottis fimbriata in the larger rounder flowers, leaves without spots and generally more robust and larger growth habit. It flowers about a month after Stenoglottis fimbriata from October through to January.

The species can also be separated by the lip details shown below (thanks Joe for the great photos)

 Stenoglottis longifolia has a lip ending in seven points (three from each side lobe and one from the midlobe)

 Stenoglottis fimbriata has a lip ending in three points (the mid lobe and two side lobes)

Interestingly we have made a hybrid between the two and seedlings have turned out very intermediate between the parents. Crossing the very spotted leaves of S.fimbriata with the all green leaves of S. longifolia has produced leaves with a few spots, and the flowers have a lip ending in generally five points with two from each side lobe shown below.

 Stenoglottis longifolia x fimbriata

It is just over three weeks until twelve Orchid Project students head to Kuching for our second expedition to Sarawak. Each student will be running a workshop for the students at MRSM School and so preparation is well under way. Otto is sorting seedlings ready for de-flasking for Laura’s Deflasking workshop.

Eleanor will be running the orchid seed biology workshop and Joe is helping her sort the seed to take.

We will be applying tomorrow for the import certificate we need to take these plants and seeds to Malaysia.

A key focus for the displays of orchids at the Bristol Aquarium is the relationship between orchids and their diverse pollinators. Epidendrum paniculatum is a great example of a butterfly pollinated orchid and we were fortunate to observe a glass wing butterfly pollinating the similar Epidendrum piliatum in Costa Rica on our last school expedition there (photo above). With 12 students on our trip to Sarawak this month we will be hoping to observe more pollinators in action.

Epidendrum paniculatum is a lovely species and as traditionally described was found throughout Central and South America in cool wet forest above 1000m but the complex (group of similar species) has been split into several species with the true Epidendrum paniculatum being endemic to Peru.

We grow the species in baskets and it flowers from small plants 15cm high with a few flowers and when taller produces many flowers on branched spikes.