Dendrobium subuliferum

This miniature species is from Papua New Guinea and belongs to the Oxyglossum group of Dendrobiums, a group of mostly high altitude species with very long-lasting flowers.  This is first-bloom seedling and has only one flower at present, but if happy can be very floriferous.  My plant, at present is 5 cm, but should grow a bit larger.  The flowers are 1 cm in size and have a sparkling texture which sets off the beautiful purple tip to the column.

Masdevallia ampullacea 'Connor'

Here is a small Masdevallia species from Ecuador and another from Saltatrices group.  The plant is 5 cm tall and the flowers 3 cm including the tails.  It blooms during the winter and is faintly scented.  This particular plant was awarded by the American Orchid Society.  It is very similar in color and appearance to Masdevallia strobelii (below), but the flower are much smaller than the flowers of that species.  It was awarded as Masdevallia aurea, but subsequently identified as Masdevallia ampullacea.

Dendrobium cuthbertsonii

My favorite orchid, but not always that easy to grow.  I've learned over the years (thanks, Andy) that they like very high light and are much more temperature tolerant when given high light, very little fertilizer (some claim that fertilizer kills them, but my do well with small amount in nearly every watering), and lots of water and humidity.

The species comes from the highlands of Papua New Guinea, though it is also found in some lowland areas, and apparently there is a company in Taiwan that is breeding these warmer growing plants and producing plants that are very tolerant of warmer temperatures.  In any case it is notable for its unusual foliage, tiny growths and huge flowers.

The individual growths are around an inch tall with beautifully "pebbled" leaves and produce flowers that are well over an inch in size and that come in red, orange, yellow, pink, white and bicolor shades.  The flowers are very long lasting, staying fresh for six months or more, and the plants are seldom out of flower for that reason.

I still remember seeing this species for the first time many years ago and falling in love with it.  It has taken a long time and a lot of good advice to master the growing of it, however, but this seedling, blooming for the second time is evidence of success.  It is grown in a small clay pot in live sphagnum less than a foot from four T5 HO bulbs.

Masdevallia strobelii

One of the smaller Masdevallias but one that can be covered with flowers when it blooms well as mine did this year, Masevallia strobelii belongs to the Saltatrices section of the genus Masdevallia and has the typical features of the species in that section, a slight bulge or "belly" at the bottom  of the flower, the flower tube lined with glandular hairs and bright color.  This species is also highly fragrant and will perfume a whole room with its blooms.  Fragrant, colorful, and prolific bloomer, what more could one ask?

Dendrobium Illusion

Dendrobium Illusion is a hybrid of two New Guinean species, Dendrobium cuthbertsonii, a tiny species in the Oxyglossum section, and Dendrobium lawesii, a much larger plant with long cane-like stems in the Pedilonum section.  It has some of the better features of both its parents.  It is much smaller in size than Dend. lawesii and has the large, long-lasting flowers of Dend. cuthbertsonii and is certainly easier to grow and bloom than that species.

I have three plants and this is one has the largest flowers, which are also more orange than the other two clones, but it does not seem to bloom with as many flowers as the others.  The flowers are so very long lasting that the plant is rarely out of bloom.  As the old flowers finally fade new buds are opening.  Nevertheless its best bloom time is in early winter when these photos were taken.  I grow it in a clay pot in live sphagnum moss.

Serupa tapi tak sama..

           Thats the best title in my native language that I can put on this post, it simply means 'look similar but not the same' and this post just comes out on my mind all of sudden. Basically this is a comparison that I've noticed  about certain orchid species that resembles each other even though they comes from a totally different continents, American, Asian, Africa and Australia.

           As you already knew, orchids grew almost everywhere in every part of the world. They are so diverse and adaptable to their surrounding. By looking at certain orchids species, I can't help but see that some  share the striking resemblance with each other, of course not 100%, but they are very much alike. To an untrained eye or someone new in the orchid field, could get a little confused especially if they see the plants together without flowers.

            This is just a fun post, that focused only on the similarity in their vegetative appearances only. The degree of similarity amongst them might be throughout different stages of their growth, when they are young or the already matured ones. Some of the plants that I've listed below really does looks like each other, even though their actual size might be different. You can only differentiate when they are in flower.

           In order to compare and see the similarity, I've tried to find the picture of each plants without or not so obvious flowering ones, so as not to distract from their vegetative likenesses. Maybe the are more orchid look alike that I'm not aware of but take a look at what I've found..

           Jangan kan manusia, orkid pun ada yang seakan-akan serupa. Bila dah 'main' orkid ni lama, OC perasan ada beberapa spesis yang asalnya dari benua yang berbeza tetapi berkongsi ciri-ciri yang serupa. Kalau dari kawasan contohnya Asia tenggara tu, memanglah ada yang hampir sama, sebab berada dalam situasi geografi yang tak banyak berbeza. Jadi OC pun godek-godek dalam internet dan dapatlah  beberapa spesis yang bila dibandingkan hampir sama walaupun hidup di benua yang berbeza..

           Jika dilihat dari segi bentuk pokoknya memang seakan-akan sama tetapi apabila berbunga 100% berlainan, maklumlah spesis yang keseluruhannya berbeza! OC bayangkan kalaulah dua spesis yang berbeza ni di di letakkan sekaligus, tak ada bunga ataupun pokok tu masih belum matang, memang tak dapat nak dikenali.. walaupun kemungkinan tu sangat tipis sebab bukan senang nak dapat spesis dari benua lain..

            Mungkin bagi yang dah 'expert' lebih mudah nak bezakan, cuma kalau orang yang masih baru tu mungkin sedikit keliru kalau berada di dalam situasi ini. Apa pun sama-sama lah kita tengok..

  Aerangis modesta (Madagascar)                      Phalaenopsis cornu cervi (Southern Asia)

          These two looks almost the same right? I havent seen Aer. modesta in real life but from the picture both resembles each other. I think cornu cervi is much larger. The other orchid that look like this is Sedirea japonica.

          Kedua-dua spesis monopodial di dalam gambar ni nampak seakan-akan sama, Walau pun OC tak pernah lihat Aerangis modesta yang sebenar..anggaran saiznya juga lebih kurang sama di dalam gambar..Satu lagi orkid yang pokoknya juga seakan-akan serupa ialah Sedirea japonica.

Bromheadia finlaysoniana (Southern Asia)      Epidendrum nocturnum(American Con.) 

           Bromhedia is a terresterial orchid from Asia whilst Epi. Nocturnum is an epiphytes from the American continents, but they share the likeness in their plant structure

           Bromheadia ni asal dari benua Asia nampak serupa dengan Epidendrum nocturnum dari Selatan Amerika..cuma Bromheadia tumbuh di atas tanah manakala Epidendrum nocturnum ni spesis epifit.

Dockrillia wasselii (Australia)                 Scuticaria irwiniana (South America)

         At a glance they may look the same but the difference between these two are the rhizome in thicker,almost the same size with the leaves in Scuticaria, whilst Dockrillia leaves was more constricted at the base.

         Sekali imbas nampak sama, tetapi perbezaannya tu paling ketara pada bahagian pangkal daun, rizom Dockrillia lebih kecil manakala Scuticaria lebih kurang sama saiz dengan daunnya.

                    Dendrophylax lindenii (American Con.)       Chilochista lunifera (Southern Asia)          

           I havent seen Dendrophylax lindenii in real life, whether its much bigger than Chiloschistas, But from the pictures, how you can tell them apart when they are not in flower?

           OC tak pernah tengok lagi Dendrophylax lindenii ni lagi, tertanya-tanya la pulak boleh ke tumbuh di Malaysia ni..he..he..(teringin la tu..) Tak tahulah pula saiznya akarnya sebesar mana berbanding dengan spesis chilochista ni. Nampak macam lebih kurang sama saja. Banyak lagi orkid jenis 'akar' ni yang seakan-akan sama dari Madagascar, Afrika dan Australia pun ada.

Epidendrum lockhartiodes (American Con.)            Eria aporoides  (Southern Asia)

Dendrobium compressistylum (Southern Asia)             Lockhartia species (South America)

Lockhartia hercodonta (South Americ                  Oberonia padangensis(Southern Asia)

          These 3 pairs of orchids pictures have the same leaf structure even though 5 of them are totally different species, for each pair one originated from Asia and the other from American continents

         Tiga pasangan pokok orkid ni mempunyai struktur daun yang serupa walaupun5 daripadanya merupakan genus yang berbeza sama sekali

Paraphalaenopsis labukensis (Southern Asia)       Scuticaria steelei (South America)

          This two separate species have the same form of terete leaves, but more or less similar. Paraphalaenopsis labukensis stem base has a few overlapping terete leaves while Scuticaria has a single terete leaf coming out from the slightly spaced apart rhizome.

          Dua spesis ni mempunyai daun 'terete' yang panjang,itulah yang paling ketara persamaannya. Kalau tengok dari dekat Scuticaria ni mempunyai daun yang lebih kecil dan tidak berlapis, terasing di antara satu daun dengan yang lain di atas rizomnya, manakala Paraphalaenopsis mempunyai struktur daun yang berlapis di atas satu sama lain.

Neobenthamia gracilis (Africa)                                   Arundina graminifolia (Asia)

          The same reed like appearance might be a little confusing. From my observation, neobenthamia leaves  are a little bit straggly, while arundinas are neater.

          Arundina ialah orkid yang biasanya tumbuh di tepi-tepi lebuhraya di negara kita dan juga terdapat di negara asia yang lain..Neobenthamia pulak genus orkid yang berasal dari Tanzania, tapi kalau kita tengok berdasarkan gambar ni tak banyak beza pun..Kalau ada pun daun Neobenthamia lebih 'longlai' dari Arundina yang mana pokoknya lebih 'kemas'.

Dendrobium leonis (Southern Asia)                   Angraecum distichum (South America)

Same plant and leaf structure, but Den. leonis is much bigger plants than Ang. distichum

          Persamaan di sini pun cuma dari segi struktur daun sahaja. Dendrobium leonis lebih besar.

Oberonia species (Asia)                            Podangis dactyloceras (Africa)


Another quite similar species, Oberonia from Asia and podangis from Africa. Though I might add that this Oberonia leaves was fleshier.

Daun spesis Oberonia ni lebih lembut dan tebal daripada Podangis yang lebih nipis dan lebih keras.

           Maybe there's more of this kind of similarity in between species of orchids from different continents that I haven't seen, but this is what I can prepare for the blog at the moment.

           Jadi setakat yang OC dapat kenalpasti inilah antara spesis yang hampir sama bentuknya, mungkin ada lagi spesis lain juga dan OC terlepas pandang, tapi tak mengapalah sekurang-kurangnya dapat juga dikongsikan di sini.

A flower falls, even though we love it; and a weed grows, 

even though we do not love it.

 - Dogen

Trisetella hoeijeri

Trisetella hoeijeri is a tiny species that was once classified as Masdevallia.  Most of the Trisetellas have small reddish-brown flowers with short tails, but this one, obviously, is different.  The plant is a few centimeters tall and the flowers are 4 cm from tip to tip.  My plant blooms with a lot of flowers in early winter, but produces an odd flower off and on throughout the year.  It is from Ecuador and is grown mounted and cool.