This pretty African species is looking a picture this morning.

Polystachya is a common genus amongst African orchids and Polystachya vulcanica comes from the volcanic mountains of Rwanda, Uganda and Zaire (hence its lovely name – it doesn’t come from Vulcan!)

It lives in high altitude mossy forest similar to that we found on the upper slopes of Mount Bigugu in Rwanda. This is the highest point in Nyungwe national park at 3000m and the orchid is found from 1600-3000m. This habitat is very similar to South American cloud forests and so we grow the species in Cool Americas where we keep it moist and shaded all year.

Like most Polystachyas the species holds its flowers upside down (non-resupinate) and this flower is photographed from below to show the lovely colour combination. Flower spikes are produced in profusion and each produces sequential individual flowers over a period of months during the summer. Each flower stems produce several flowers over the summer months.

This miniature species from Colombia and Venezuela that produces single flowers from the top of 4cm growths and can make an impressive flowering plant in a 3cm pot. In nature it is an epiphyte in oak forests from 600m to 2700m altitude. We call the species a miniature but over time plants can develop into specimen ‘balls’ like this one with over 100 flowers and buds.

Plants also do well mounted and we grow some plants into specimens that completely surround their cork mount with lovely little flowers held out for their humming bird pollinator. The target for the humming birds beak is the green/yellow V at the top of the red lip and there are two beak guides either side of the opening to the nectary.

We find this a very accommodating plant that grows equally well in Warm or Coll Americas and flowers well both when grown in good light and in semi shade. We keep plants well watered but in a free draining compost or mounted so that plants can dry out soon after watering.

We have two distinct clones of the species. The one above has spikey pendulous growths and a brown/red flower while the clone below is more upright and has clear red flowers. We love them both.

Sarawak is home to many orchid species we know including several Phalaenopsis species including the tiny flowered Phalaenopsis deliciosa that is flowering in our greenhouse this week. This is a species that we have seen growing in Sikkim, where we found it growing in hot valleys in seasonally dry forests where it lives in shade and develops an extensive root system. In the wild the plant is semi deciduous but it keeps its leaves in cultivation. The small flowers flower successively over a long period.

The species is found from Sikkim right across the Eastern Himalayas to South East Asia, Malaysia and the Philippines.

We find that plants enjoy growing mounted which also shows of the very pretty little flowers on short spikes that last a long time. We grow plants in shade in Warm Asia (min 18C).

Bee orchids may be hard to find on Cley Hill this year but the colony that Agnes found last year in Asham woods is doing really well.

Plants are growing in an area where all the soil was cleared in preparation for quarrying about 25 years ago. The area is now dominated by silver birch trees and the ground is a combination of rough limestone and moss.

The first photo shows the fantastic profile of this most spectacular of native flowers and the pollinia can clearly be seen in the process of self pollinating the flower. The developing seed pods will shower millions of seeds across this fascinating habitat and hopefully we will see the numbers of bee orchids here continue to rise.

Tallis, Chloe and Jess have been working hard for the past two weeks to prepare for our first trip to Sarawak in July (We fly out on July 14th). We have worked with our partners in Kuching to order everything for the new propagation lab at MRSM School and today we have been sorting out seed and seedlings in vitro to take for laboratory skills training. We want to take a good range of seed from our seed bank so that students get experience in handling seeds that sink, float or do a bit of both.

The samples show just how varied orchid seed is.

We are taking fifteen different orchid species seedlings in-vitro to include a range of South East Asian species and a range of seedling ages.

For transport the seedlings will be moved out of their sterile jars and into sterile bags (without media)

In Kuching the seedlings will be moved back into sterile jars and, of course, everything is done aseptically in a flow cabinet as shown below.

The seed and seedlings will be accompanied by an import certificates from Sarawak (The Wildlife Officer at the Nature Conservation & Constitution Division of the Forest Department Sarawak has been very helpful) along with export and phytosanitary certificates from APHA (Animal and Plant Health Authority UK). I feel that it is always a good learning experience for students to get involved with the certification for the legal export of their orchid seedlings.