Species

Rhynchostylis orchids: Species and Care

Rhynchostylis orchid

Rhynchostylis (Rhy.) orchids are close relatives to Vanda orchids. The main difference between these related genera is flowers – unlike Vanda, Rhynchostulis orchids have one-lobed lips and usually fragrant. Before re-classification, this genus consisted of 13 species from China, Indochina, Indonesia, Indian Subcontinent, Malaysia and the Philippines, but now there are only four recognized species …

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Barkeria orchids

Barkeria orchids are close relatives to Cattleya and Epidendrum (and once these orchids were classified within Epidendrum genus), but they have a unique morphology, ecology, which are the reasons that they are classified within the other distinct genus. Their uniqueness lies within their morphology – they are sympodial but do not possess pseudobulbs. Unlike Cattleya, …

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Leptotes orchids

Leptotes orchids are among so-called “famous orchids”. Their fame is not only in their beauty and popularity as decorative plants but also in their gastronomic use. Yes, widely grown species – Leptotes bicolor – is used in Brazil as a Vanilla substitute. Its flowers and seed pods have Vanilla flavor and could be used just like …

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Sobralia orchids

Sobralia orchids have large and showy flowers, resembling Cattleya. The only disadvantage of the majority species fo these magnificent orchids is that their flowers are exceptionally short living – each flower lives only for one day, but some Sobralia species, for example, Sobralia caloglossa have flowers lasting for several days. Their beauty is extremely short lasting, because their ephemeral flowers …

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Calanthe orchids – unjustly forgotten and easy to grow house plants

There are some unjustly forgotten orchid species. Such species, which once were quite popular for their beauty and easiness in cultivation, got forgotten just because of the advent of some more popular and trendy orchids, which are everywhere – in an advertisement, cinema, arts and design. However, some of such forgotten orchids were unbelievably popular …

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Pleione orchids – easy to grow terrestrial orchids

When we talk about orchids, we usually think about tropical rainforests, rich and exquisite Cattleya flowers, butterfly-like Phalaenopsis, exotic beauty of Masdevalias, but nearly nobody thinks about the plant with a crocus habit and orchid flowers. Pleione are unique orchids – they are terrestrial and occasionally epiphytic and lithophytic plants from Asia. They look almost exactly like crocus, so …

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