Friday, October 21, 2011

A lithophytic orchid

I was happy to admire some orchids during my last Indochinese trip. I stumbled several times on the following species which is quite common in Koh Kong province, Cambodia. This part of the country like most of the rest of the territory is subject to a severe dry season and one wonders how such a delicate plant can cope with a harsh environment. Plants are resilient.



Even if I knew that some plants could grow completely on rocks, I still felt amazed when I witness such plants. What a striking sight!



Those roots were really amazing. This species produce pale pink flowers. It is hard though to reproduce the right colour with the camera. Some flowers were much darker than others.




The last picture is a favourite of mine. It looks this thing is able to crawl!


This species looks the same as the beautiful Thai orchid introduced by Mark Anders as Phalaenopsis (Doritis) pulcherrima in the following CPUK post:
http://www.cpukforum.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=44003&pid=308174&st=0&#entry308174
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4 comments:

  1. Jardinerong SunogOctober 24, 2011 at 3:41 AM

    That indeed is Doritis pulcherrima (I don't wish to expand the concept of Phalaenopsis, hence my use of Doritis for this species). They are known to shed their leaves in periods of prolonged droughts, and have strongly xerophytic adaptations such as the possession of thick leaves and thick, long roots that penetrate deep into the substrate; even the blooms are fleshy.

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  2. AnonymousOctober 24, 2011 at 12:35 PM

    Dear colleagues, may I mention this identification in my hopefully forthcoming odonatological report about this trip where I planed to include an illustration of Drosera indica, this and another one orchid as conspicuous veal plants? If yes then with reference to whose indetification (or better to live it unreferenced?)?

    I would be very grateful if someone would identify for this purpose the other orchid implied, growing on the same veals but in swamps rather than rocks. Here is a link on a temporary page with its photo (The blogspot did not allow an image in comments):
    http://pisum.bionet.nsc.ru/kosterin/lj/orchid_swamp.htm

    Thank you in advance,

    Oleg Kosterin

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  3. hutcha sriplungJanuary 24, 2012 at 7:03 AM

    Nice Doritis. How hardy it is in the wild. In my area, the plant has smaller size.

    Hutcha Sriplung

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  4. nayunayuOctober 21, 2014 at 7:16 AM

    beautiful... i have one plant in my place but not yet blooming..

    ReplyDelete