Grammatophyllum. The largest orchids in the world.

Grammatophyllum scriptum VAR citrinum

Grammatophyllum is a very famous orchid genus. Famous for its titanic sizes – Grammatophyllum speciosum, type species is sometimes called Giant Orchid for its gabarits – it is the biggest orchid in the world. With pseudobulbs up to three meters and weight up to one ton this orchid is amazing threat for trees – yes, this is epiphytic species (and sometimes terrestrial, not all trees can stand such a giant and simply crush, after tree death orchid continues to grow on tree remnants).

This orchid genus is of Asian origin and may be seen in tropical forests of Asia, Indonesia, Phillipines, New Guinea, and Pacific islands. This genus is closely related to Cymbidium genus (and there is some hybrids between these genera such as Grammatocymbidium Lovely Melody ‘Sweet’), but they have distinct morphology.

Most popular Grammatophyllum speciosum (also known as Grammatophyllum wallisii), Grammatophyllum scriptum and related species have long, cane pseudobulbes with numerous leaves, other species have more spherical pseudobulbs with fewer leaves in upper part of pseudobulb.



Flowers are born in long, arching racemes. Flowers are usually green, yellow or brown with purple dots on large sepals and petals, lip is usually small.

Grammatophyllum speciosum is giant, and its flowers are giant too – 5 to 8 inches, fragrant and showy – yellow with purple dots,  Grammatophyllum scriptum is much smaller – its pseudobulbs up to 20 cm long (but he is also large to giant plant, it is only in comparison to Grammatophyllum speciosum it is “small”) and with much smaller flowers – up to two inches, green with brown on it and not fragrant. However  Grammatophyllum scriptum (sometimes called Bell Orchid) is much more suitable to indoor orchid growing than  Grammatophyllum speciosum due to its more compact sizes, you should remember that  Grammatophyllum orchids are not only the biggest orchids in the world, they’re the fastest growing – healthy, properly grown  Grammatophyllum plant can double its size in one year.  Grammatophyllum orchid care is quite simple – they are warm to hot growing, prefer full sunlight (you should give it so many sunlight as possible), ample watering and they are really heavy feeders – to grow fast, they need a lot of balanced fertilizers.

 


 

Grammatophyllum Orchids For Sale On eBay

 

 

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