Orchids of the day: Encyclia mariae and Dendrobium jenkensii

Back again after 2 days hiatus. Happy Groundhog Day and Super Bowl! Six more weeks of winter and maybe the Broncos will win. After all it is the year of the Horse per Chinese calendar. OK, enough of current events in the States. Let's talk orchids now. 

Encyclia mariae (synonymously known as Euchile mariae) was discovered in 1937. A native of the higher elevations of the dry oaks forest near the border of Mexico with Texas. It has greenish yellow flowers with prominent white lip with green veins at the base. Here you can see how Arne hangs the Encyclia mariae in his orchidarium along side his other orchids but when it gets warm, he will hang it in the window.

This orchid is best mounted on wood or the bark of a cork oak. It blooms in Spring and Summer and the flowers produce a pleasant subtle fragrance. Out in nature, this orchid is a semi-deciduous plant and does require dry winter rest, and moderate light. Arne has been very successful with Encyclia mariae indoors here and it will be flowering a lot more in Spring 2014! These photos were taken from June 2012.

Up close with the blooms. They are very fragile looking. It fascinates me how small the actual orchid is attached to the bark and how large the flowers can be. Imagine how beautiful it must look in nature! Apparently there are 4 clones of the Encyclia mariae and if you are interest simply go to an orchid forum and type in Encyclia mariae. 

This is Dendrobium jenkensii, also called Jenkin's Dendrobium because it was named after an officer of the East India Trading Company in the early 1800's. I gather he was an orchid enthusiast. It is a native of Hainan China, Assam, Eastern Himalayas, Nepal, Burma and Laos. Dendrobium jenkensii thrives in open forest on tree trunks at elevations of 700 m to 1500 m. 

This photo was taken in April 2010 and we are looking forward to more flowers this year. This orchid flourish in the warm Summer weather. Arne keeps it extremely dry between mid-November until mid-February. Then he would start watering once a week to induced flowering. Arne said this is a tricky one to grow indoors but he can! 

The species in the above photo is Dendrobium lindleyi which is commonly confused with Dendrobium jenkensii. The difference between the two is that jenkensii is a true miniature orchid with big but few flowers. Dendrobium lindleyi on the other hand is larger, produces bigger and more  flowers per stalk when it blooms. Plus the flowers produce a pleasant fragrance. This photo was taken in April 2013 and the orchid is doing well. Hopefully I can update you with more pictures.