Spathoglottis is a genus of tropical terrestial orchids that are native in regions from Sri Lanka and South East Asia to the Pacific islands. There are about 45 species of spathoglottis growing in diverse habitats in South East Asia, India, New Caledonia, Tonga, Solomon Islands and Cape York Peninsular, Australia. I'm sure you can find it in Hawaii, Florida and other tropical and sub-tropical USA regions too.
Spathoglottis orchids are easy to cultivate here and sought after for their pretty flowers and evergreen foliage. Leaves are long, slender and parallel-veined. This orchid is used as a ground cover in tropical landscaped gardens and it can also be grown in a container as a houseplant.
Botanical name: Spathoglottis hybrids
Common name: Garden orchid, boat orchid, ground orchid, Philippines ground orchid, palm orchid*
Family: Orchidaceae
* info, thanks to James Missier of Garden Chronicles blog.
Common name: Garden orchid, boat orchid, ground orchid, Philippines ground orchid, palm orchid*
Family: Orchidaceae
* info, thanks to James Missier of Garden Chronicles blog.
Flowers occur in clusters that form at the end of a long stalk and come in purple, orange, yellow and white.
When you look closely at the flowers, you will be able to see their 3-lobed labellum that projects forward with an extended midlobe that make it easy for insects to land. Both sepals and petals are broad and the sepals are hairy on the outside. Some spathoglottis orchids are self-pollinating while others are insect pollinated.
Spathoglottis orchids prefer well drained loamy soil. Water them regularly but do not overwater. Here they grow well in light shade to full sun exposure. I think their biggest enemy is the white mealy bugs that forms in clusters behind the leaves.
I have this magenta or pinkish purple Spathoglottis plicata in my garden.
Spathoglottis plicata is listed as vulnerable in Australia.
In Malaysia, we used to find this orchid in many homes in the kampungs and villages. In my next post about other ground orchids, I shall share more about these simple, pretty orchids, and my special orchid.
I am very eager to know if you are growing these ground orchids in your climate zone. Do share your experience in a comment here.
Note: The pinkish-yellow and white spathoglottis pictures are taken at The Secret Garden of 1-Utama while the purple one in the last picture is from my garden.
My post today is dedicated to Ms Sunny from USA, of Barnyards and Barnacles - An America Photo Journey blog. She was the first commenter of my previous post, tittled "Datura metel - Wordless Wednesday". She has a great blog full of beautiful, beautiful pictures which I have already found and admired even before joining Blotanical. I am so glad she still visits and comments on my blog. Yay, yay, yay :).
This is my entry for Blooming Friday, 3rd week of February 2010. The theme this week is "Eye Candy for the Weekend." My grateful thanks to Katarina at Roses and Stuff for hosting Blooming Friday. To see what others have posted or to participate, click here.This is also my entry for Today's Flowers #81. My grateful thanks to the TF folks: Santilli, Denise, Pupo and Valkyrien for hosting Today's Flowers. To participate or view other floral displays around the world, click here.
