On the subject of Cymbidium ensifolium in it's habitat, Oliver Sparrow said:
"This is a cool growing monsoonal species that loves to be in a large mass, extremely root bound but also free drained - think of it as wedged into a crack in a rock, with a decade of old roots locking it in place as it spills across the boulder. In nature, it gets a cold Winter and little or no rain in the November-February period, and will not easily flower if grown hot and or wet. It will be unhappy if kept cold and wet when dormant. " Oliver, this is not always the case. C. ensifolium is quite common in Sulawesi Selatan (Indonesia) from 1000-1900 metres altitude, where we have seen it growing and/or flowering quite happily in (a) primary forest; (b) patches of montane forest among dense pine plantations; (c) dense riverine forest in a steep-sided gulley where the base rock is eroded limestone; and (d) on steep valley slopes, growing in spaces between large mature clumps of bamboo. In all cases the plants were growing in deep shade. We have not seen any large clumps; all these specimens have had a maximum of 4-5 pseudobulbs, but these have not been young plants with increasing pseudobulb sizes; the older pseudobulbs appear to have died off and the remains rotted away. We haven't seen a single instance of root-bound plants; in two of these cases the plants were "rooted" into a rich, deep leaf-litter layer (ie, not firmly attached to anything) and had extensive spreading root-systems. Climatically, this part of Indonesia is strongly monsoonal (November-March rainy season, with a "small monsoon" from May-July in some years), but experiences little seasonal variation in temperature. The population at 1000 m altitude was growing in what I'd call warm-tropical conditions (hot-house to you cold-climate people), while the population at 1900 metres was in what I'd call intermediate conditions (your warm-house temps). None of these populations would ever experience temps below 15 C. C. ensifolium is the only terrestrial Cymbidium species that is easy to grow outdoors in Singapore, where it is always hot and wet. It does even better in a humus-rich medium on a bright windowsill in an air-conditioned office. Cheers, Peter O'Byrne _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
