Drymoanthus adversus - the Green Fleshy Tree Orchid
Drymoanthus adversus - the Green Fleshy Tree Orchid
This species is native to both the North and South Islands of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands to the east of N.Z.
It is found from coastal to sub-alpine forests and is more common on the North Island. It usually grows as an epiphyte on trunks and branches in association with lichens and / or mosses in quite well light situations but is occasionally found growing as a lithophyte on mossy or lichen covered rocks. Up to about 5 flowers that are about 4mm across are borne on short racemes usually under the leaves.
It is a member of the sarcanthinae, the most familiar genus of which is Sarcochilus and it has succedssfully made 5 different hybrids when crossed with species and hybrid sarcochilus. An Australian species, Drymoanthus minutis is native to Queensland Australia.
Western Orchids / Laboratories bought the plants of Drymoanthus adversus originally as a sterile tissue culture flask of very small seedlings from a Queensland orchid nursery and, as they were far too small to survive deflask at the time of purchase, it was decided to replate them on to fresh tissue culture medium to grow on before any attempt to deflask them.
After replate into fresh tissue culture flasks, they were put amongst sarchochilus seedlings with the assumption that they would thrive wherever the sarcochilus flasks did well. Indeed they did not thrive until they were transferred to a much stronger light situation where they improved immediately.
After a time several of the seedlings produced flower spikes in flask and so they were deflasked about February 2015 and mounted with the roots placed on top of bush moss that had been tied on to small, Western Red Cedar mount planks and kept in an air-conditioned glass house to optimize humidity and keep temperatures below 36 deg C while providing some light all day but quite good light during the afternoon.
In April, as it was cooler and more humid outdoors, they were transferred to racking outdoors under about 75% shade cloth where they flourished.
In winter some of those mounted seedlings rotted as, it seems, they were exposed to too frequent rain and fog in the Adelaide Hills so all were transferred to more sheltered locations to avoid exposure to rain where they survived without further losses. They were fertilized generally once a day with quite dilute ( 250 to 500 ppm ), broad spectrum macro, micro and trace elements fertilizer which included magnesium and calcium plus cobalt in the trace element profile.
Lately more plants produced flower spikes and buds which also commenced to open at the end of August 2015. On the journey by car to be photographed, many of the pollen caps were dislodged. As the flowers are quite small, we did not notice that many of the caps and, in some cases, the pollen also had been lost and so only discovered the fact after the photos had been taken.
Though the species is small and has red to purplish spots on a green background, Western Orchids propose to make hybrids using this species for ongoing breeding with the sarcochilus alliance as the flower size will return in a couple of hybridizing generations. The plants are very cold tolerant and the colours, markings and patterns on the flowers are likely to be inherited by some seedlings in subsequent generations, especially with wise interbreeding, and these are likely to be somewhat novel and appealing.
compiled from 20 frames using Nikon D810 180mm Macro lens Nikon ring flash
Drymoanthus adversus - the Green Fleshy Tree Orchid
Drymoanthus adversus - the Green Fleshy Tree Orchid
This species is native to both the North and South Islands of New Zealand and the Chatham Islands to the east of N.Z.
It is found from coastal to sub-alpine forests and is more common on the North Island. It usually grows as an epiphyte on trunks and branches in association with lichens and / or mosses in quite well light situations but is occasionally found growing as a lithophyte on mossy or lichen covered rocks. Up to about 5 flowers that are about 4mm across are borne on short racemes usually under the leaves.
It is a member of the sarcanthinae, the most familiar genus of which is Sarcochilus and it has succedssfully made 5 different hybrids when crossed with species and hybrid sarcochilus. An Australian species, Drymoanthus minutis is native to Queensland Australia.
Western Orchids / Laboratories bought the plants of Drymoanthus adversus originally as a sterile tissue culture flask of very small seedlings from a Queensland orchid nursery and, as they were far too small to survive deflask at the time of purchase, it was decided to replate them on to fresh tissue culture medium to grow on before any attempt to deflask them.
After replate into fresh tissue culture flasks, they were put amongst sarchochilus seedlings with the assumption that they would thrive wherever the sarcochilus flasks did well. Indeed they did not thrive until they were transferred to a much stronger light situation where they improved immediately.
After a time several of the seedlings produced flower spikes in flask and so they were deflasked about February 2015 and mounted with the roots placed on top of bush moss that had been tied on to small, Western Red Cedar mount planks and kept in an air-conditioned glass house to optimize humidity and keep temperatures below 36 deg C while providing some light all day but quite good light during the afternoon.
In April, as it was cooler and more humid outdoors, they were transferred to racking outdoors under about 75% shade cloth where they flourished.
In winter some of those mounted seedlings rotted as, it seems, they were exposed to too frequent rain and fog in the Adelaide Hills so all were transferred to more sheltered locations to avoid exposure to rain where they survived without further losses. They were fertilized generally once a day with quite dilute ( 250 to 500 ppm ), broad spectrum macro, micro and trace elements fertilizer which included magnesium and calcium plus cobalt in the trace element profile.
Lately more plants produced flower spikes and buds which also commenced to open at the end of August 2015. On the journey by car to be photographed, many of the pollen caps were dislodged. As the flowers are quite small, we did not notice that many of the caps and, in some cases, the pollen also had been lost and so only discovered the fact after the photos had been taken.
Though the species is small and has red to purplish spots on a green background, Western Orchids propose to make hybrids using this species for ongoing breeding with the sarcochilus alliance as the flower size will return in a couple of hybridizing generations. The plants are very cold tolerant and the colours, markings and patterns on the flowers are likely to be inherited by some seedlings in subsequent generations, especially with wise interbreeding, and these are likely to be somewhat novel and appealing.
compiled from 20 frames using Nikon D810 180mm Macro lens Nikon ring flash