#eulophia

[spiffyspidr]

This is one of my rarest orchids, known as Eulophia quartiniana! (:

It's a terrestrial, deciduous orchid that's native to Ghana. In the wild it normally would grow in grassy plains.

This species almost disappeared from the wild many years back, but was reintroduced again more recently!!

121 small plants were grown by seed, and 100 of them went back to Ghana. My neighbour was the one in charge of growing the orchids for their reintroduction, and was allowed to keep a few of the smallest plants for his collection.

My orchid is one of those few he kept from the 121 seedlings he grew, and I believe it is somewhere around 20 years old now and flowering for the first time! :D

[botaniqueer]

Photos from the UW Greenhouse! They're open every Thursday (10am-4pm) or 2nd and 4th Saturday (10am-2pm). A friend wanted to show it to me when I moved here but it had just started construction and it just reopened this year! I got today off and decided to use it to see it for the first time.

Eulophia petersii, a desert-living orchid.

Welwitschia mirabilis, a desert conifer that keeps the same continually growing leaves for its long life.

Dioscorea elephantipes, which is the largest species of yam I'm currently aware of.

Some Pinguicula in flower.

Sinningia leuchotricha! I didn't realize these could get so big! These are cool members of the African violet family which have the softest, fuzziest leaves.

A huge Nepenthes pitcher.

Cordyline fruticosa

Lecanopteris deparioides, a fern with a weird blobby base! Apparently it houses ants to protect itself.

Hibiscus schizopetalus, the weirdest Hibiscus I have ever seen.

[conspectusargosy]

Eulophia callichroma is an interesting terrestrial orchid from several African countries including Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. Eulophia is one of my favorite orchid genera as many of its species break the expected norm that orchids require warm, humid, tropical sorts of places. While not the most extreme species in the genus (Eulophia petersii is noted as being the 'desert orchid' after all), it still does an impressive job thriving in rocky landscapes and forests in the slightly wetter end of the mediterranean climate range with a very harshly pronounced dry season. Swollen stems known as pseudobulbs store water and nutrients and will slowly shrivel through the dry season to be replenished when rain again falls. Like many other Eulophia, it requires a dry winter to bloom, and this species is noted as often blooming following a period of fire. In such dry climates it is quite natural for many native species to be adapted to and ultimately benefit from occasional fires. Unfortunately the introduction of non-native species and human intervention in the progress of wildfires often results in more severe fires which threaten not only human establishment but also surpass what fire-adapted species are able to tolerate.

[peters-plants]

#eulophia #orchidsofinstagram #orchid #orchidee #orchidée #orquideas #orchideen #greenthumb #plantvibes #plantlove #orchidboys #orchidlove #orchidworld #instaorchid #plants #instagram #instaplants #instaplant (hier: Austria) https://www.instagram.com/p/CLpNrFsh9nu/?igshid=1lmvailjmcpdu

[wenbochenphoto]

Wild Coco (Eulophia alta) in a wetland of northern Peru. 

[sicksadqueervegan]

Garden update: a new pseudobulb emerging on the tiny Eulophia petersii. I got this from a cactus club member at a swap a couple years ago and it seems to put out one pseudobulb a year. The leaves are only a couple inches long, so this is a pretty tiny specimen. #eulophia #eulophiapetersii #succulent #succulove #orchid #gardening #houseplant #plantnerd #containergarden

[botaniqueer]

Went to Volunteer Park Conservatory with friends last weekend! So many things were in flower! It’s one of my favorite places in Seattle.

[conspectusargosy]

Oeceoclades calcarata is a terrestrial orchid endemic to Madagascar where it grows in the sandy or rocky soil of elevated dry forests. Eulophia and Oeceoclades orchid genera are largely known for their tough pseudobulbs (storage organs) and often stiff leaves, at odds with most of the family Orchidaceae for favoring dry, terrestrial habits. This species in particular mildly demonstrates how nightmarish plant taxonomy can become. In fact, if you look it up on wikipedia, you'll find the article only talks about the taxonomy rather than attributes of the plant! As a quick summary, in 1905 it was called Eulophia paniculata, later renamed Cymbidium calcaratum, then transferred to be Eulophia calcarata. 51 years after the last name change it was shifted once again to be its final name: Oeceoclades calcarata. From what I have heard, these sorts of taxonomical disagreements can actually become quite heated in botanical circles when they come up.