Some minis I got in Singapore - Orchid Board

s1214215 · #1 (**permalink**) 03-17-2009, 10:07 AM

Some minis I picked up in Singapore a few days ago.

Lepanthes Calodictyon
Psygmorchis pusilla
Ceratochilus biglandulosa

Brett

orchidegg · #2 (**permalink**) 03-17-2009, 11:17 AM

oooh, very nice!

l.ania · #3 (**permalink**) 03-17-2009, 01:02 PM

I love the Ceratochilus biglandulosa

but the oncidium is also fabulous...
Is the lepanthes in bloom now? ;>

Cowboys East · #4 (**permalink**) 03-17-2009, 06:36 PM

Nice orchids. Its funny, I just added the Psygmorchis pusilla to my want list before I read this post.
Neil

s1214215 · #5 (**permalink**) 03-18-2009, 04:29 AM

Sadly the Lepanthes were dehydrated in shipping and lost the flowers. I hope to get seed from all these species and flask it in the future. Lots of new growths coming though, so fingers crossed.

Brett

LauraN · #6 (**permalink**) 03-18-2009, 09:00 AM

I'll certainly keep my fingers crossed on your breeding of these beautiful plants.
I have 2 of the 3 and would love to have the Lepanthes, but am afraid that I would kill it and it is pretty costly to ship to the US...

s1214215 · #7 (**permalink**) 03-18-2009, 10:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by LauraN

I'll certainly keep my fingers crossed on your breeding of these beautiful plants.
I have 2 of the 3 and would love to have the Lepanthes, but am afraid that I would kill it and it is pretty costly to ship to the US...

Hi

I know a guy in France who is hybridising Lepanthes. He has bloomed L. Saltatrix x L. Calodictyon. Here is the Flickr. Flickr: papajulietmike's Photostream He is going to swap with me I hope

Brett

phearamedusa · #8 (**permalink**) 03-19-2009, 12:48 AM

I checked out the flicker site, wow what a cute lil flower. Love the intense color...The two you have in flower are very nice as well. Good luck with the breeding/propagation of them.

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #9 (**permalink**) 03-19-2009, 02:35 AM

If you're gonna try pollinating Lepanthes calodictyon I recommend getting a 50x hand magnifier. They're very expensive! I had a hard time trying to pollinate Scaphosepalum microdactylum (flowers were 1/4" in length) and Scaphosepalum rapax (flowers were also about 1/4" in length but were a bit taller than Scaph. microdactylum) with a 10x jeweler's loupe. The pollina were tiny and difficult to spot even with the 10x loupe and the way the stigma, stigmatic opening, and anther caps were arranged along with the shape of the flowers and the upside-down nature of the Scaphs' flowers made it excruciatingly difficult to pollnate. Then there's the problem of finding something small enough to get to the stigmatic opening, but large enough for you to hold onto, and stable enough for you to pop the anther cap and get to the pollina without destroying the flower. Expect the pollina to be difficult to find if you happen to make a mistake and drop them.

I also tried to pollinate a Pleurothallis sp. where the flowers were just under a 1/2" and resembled spiders pressed flat against the leaf. That was frustrating as well, again because of the size of the pollina and the way the flower parts were arranged. It's not like pollinating Cattleyas, Cymbidiums, or Dendrobiums it's not that simple.

All I'm saying is...go ahead and try, eventually you might succeed in pollinating Lepanthes calodictyon, but don't be surprised if you fail initially and get frustrated beyond words several times in your attempts.

King_of_orchid_growing:) · #10 (**permalink**) 03-19-2009, 02:44 AM

BTW, if you guys didn't know already (and you may), some species have proved difficult to make selfings of. There are tricks, but I'm not aware of all of them. I was told that one trick was to introduce the pollina of another genus that is completely unrelated to the species you want selfings of and hope for the best.