Quote: >Cymbidium cyperifolium >Is anyone familiar with this species? I
It is very widespread, from East Nepal to Viet Nam. It was named by Lindley in 1833. It likes shaded semi-terrestrial locations, typically where leaf mould has heaped up against tree trunks or rocks. The Himalayas have dense Quercus and Castanopsis woodlands at 1200-1600m (oak and chestnut-ish rough barked, slow growing plants) and this is where it thrives, in patches of sun-lit fairly open ground. It flowers late in the year, usually as the cold sets in around November. Not the loveliest of Cymbidiums, but quite pleasing. The Chinese prize this and C. ensifolium for abstract reasons to do with purity and Dao, and some of the rarer cultivars sell for enormous sums. (By that I mean in excess of US$1 million, according to Nature a few weeks ago.) Snake in the glasshouse. As a PS: about a year ago, I noted that I found a 20 cm snake skin in a sealed UK glasshouse when cleaning it out.( Australian commentators asked whether "you could call that a snake?") However, last weekend, when fertilising, a large (easily 4 cm diameter) body slid from one bark plaque to another. I have no idea what it is or where it comes from (or indeed, what it eats!) By its drab grey scales, it could be a UK grass snake that somehow strayed in, but it is very much on the large (and short) side for that. The resident frogs (red, foreign, presumably entered in a plant) are apparently undisturbed by it. I am not much bothered by snakes, but it does slow one down when repotting large plants! Thoughts? Roots love Astroturf In the same post, I also mentioned that I had backed an orchid house with Astroturf, into which roots had eagerly grown. This provoked skeptical comment. I can now tell you that Astroturf is much favoured by Vandas, Trichoglottis, Aerides, Phalaenopsis and pretty much anything with extensive aerial roots. Coelogyne mayeriana has scrambled up it to hit the roof in a huge patch. Roots tend to grow in straight lines, following the weave, giving an oddly rectilinear effect. Vanillas like to grow up the outside of rolled Astroturf tubes. However, don't fertilise onto it or you get black A/turf. ______________________________ Oliver Sparrow +44 (0)20 7736 9716 www.chforum.org _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
