You lean over the orchid and notice a young root pushing its glossy green tip out from between the leaves and holding it just beyond the rim of the pot. There is no path laid out in front of it: dry air on one side, damper bark on the other, the outer pot below, a…
Tag: Epiphytic orchids
The Root Trilogy, Part III: The Secret Garden
When you look at the silvery root of a Phalaenopsis, what you see is… calm. The surface is dry, pale, almost clean. After watering, it turns green within seconds, then slowly fades back to silver. It is easy to imagine that you are looking at a simple covering: a botanical sponge that catches water, passes…
10 Orchids. Phalaenopsis gigantea
The beginning — Jaheri Not every story of a newly discovered species begins with a revelation. Sometimes it begins with someone looking at an extraordinary plant and reaching the perfectly reasonable conclusion that it is something already familiar. That was what happened in 1897, when Jaheri, a plant collector working for the Buitenzorg Botanical Gardens,…