Miscellaneous Orchid Families

 

Epigeneium is a genus of about 40-50 species from S. Asia and PNG. They are usually mountain plants that grow in exposed locations - E. zebrinum shown is one of the few that grow in lowland.
  In recent years Phalaenopsis amabilis hybrids have become commonly encountered ornamentals adorning hotel receptions and households of many people who has never grown orchids before - they have always been spectacular but nowadays they became very cheap as well. Like many household products nowadays, the Taiwanese have done a good job in bringing the price down dramatically. Shown is P. cornu-cervi, a fairly common species, except this specimen is pure yellow with faint markings. 

Grammatophyllum is a small genus of large plants, in fact the largest in the orchid world, G. speciosum (Tiger orchid),  is of tree-like proportion - its stem is 3 metres and the flower spike is another 2 metres. 

This is the flower of the rather rare G. martae, the black orchid recorded from Negros Island in The Philippines.
Podochilus microphyllus is a fern-like orchid with white flowers at terminal of the stems. This grows on moist rocks and branches near rivers. 

Flickeringia is a close relative of Dendrobium, consisting of about 70 species found throughout east Asia and Pacific islands. They have very short-live flowers - many with exaggerated lips. Shown is F. fimbriata from SE Asia and many Pacific islands. This plant was grown from a small 5-6 bulbs cutting from a big clump near  on a tree beside a Malaysian stream.

 

 Coelogyne Lindl is a family of Malesian orchids of about 200 species, subdivided into 14 Sections according to Pfitzer and Kraenzlin in 1907. There are a great many similar spieces that have been merged to become one one single species

 

Top: C. pallens (Thailand)

Bottom: C. speciosa (Indonesia) or something from that difficult Section.

Pelathantheria insectifera belongs to a small family of about 5 species from Asia mainland to Malaysia, closely related to Microptera. This species has long climbing stems, succulent leaves and long dangling roots. The flower lasts for almost a month !

Vanilla is a commercially important family from which the fragrant Vanilla pods are exploited after fermentation. A few species, notably V. plantifolia from Mexico, are grown for this purpose. There are about 70 species distributed all over the tropics - Africa, Asia, Americas and the Pacifics. Many of them are large climbers rooting at the ground but the species shown is an interesting short leafless species named V. aphylla from N. Malaysia and Thailand. Actually the leaves are reduced to very tiny scales

Pholidata is closely related to Coelogyne (in ways I cannot fathom) and concsists of 28 species according to de Vogel's monograph  (1988). Shown here is a larger species from SE Asia - P. imbricata, which is one of the few ornamental species in this genus. The inflorescence looks like a foot long pearl chain.

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