November Orchid Shows
From Santa Barbara to Paris to Tasmania, don’t miss these opportunities to see wondrous flowers, take photos, talk with orchid experts, __and purchase plants.
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Orchids from Another Planet
If we ever found flowers on another planet, could they possibly be stranger than these earthly orchids? Some of these blooms look like visitors from Mars or Neptune.
Despite their alien facades, they’re simply members of the enormous orchid family, which has diversity beyond measure. Their long Latin names, like Masdevallia caudivolvula __and Sigmatostalix posadarum, are sometimes bigger than the blooms themselves. They may resemble birds in flight or deep sea creatures, but they don’t look much like flowers.
In choosing photos for this post, out of many years of our orchid show pictures, the Bulbophyllums truly stood out. This large, diverse group of orchids has lots of weird blooms. The last row of photos below shows three Bulbophyllum examples, but there were many more. Don’t these flowers look like they could have come from another planet?
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Orchids for Hillary
AboutOrchids only dabbles in politics related to orchid conservation, __and this post is no exception. If you’re an orchid lover, the only choice for president this November is Hillary Clinton. The Republican nominee would be a disastrous decision for many reasons, but the one that’s most important on this blog is saving our endangered planet. That requires science, __and Trump is anti-science. This recent article from Scientific American disqualifies him from the job on that single point alone. Fortunately, polls are looking good for Clinton now, but it’s not over til it’s over.
The photos above illustrate three examples of endangered orchid species which need Hillary Clinton to win. These are just a few of many thousands of orchid species which are imperiled by climate change, habitat destruction, pollution, and poaching of wild plants. Hillary Clinton has a strong environmental record, and she has pledged to tackle climate change and other problems. If orchids could vote, their choice would definitely be Hillary Clinton for president.
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A Big Purple Sobralia Orchid
Sobralia flowers never fail to impress. Recently I mentioned this plant in a post about Growing Orchids Outdoors in Pacifica. This Sobralia species bloomed for years outside in our San Francisco garden. It didn’t do so well after our move to the coast, so I finally brought it indoors. After a quick growth spurt, it flowered before we left for our recent trip to Colorado.
These big purple blossoms, with sunny yellow __and white centers, only last for a few days, the very definition of fleeting beauty. The first three pictures above show my plant’s recent bloom indoors. The remaining pictures below show blooms from past years, when the plant lived outdoors in our San Francisco garden, They include a great photo of a visit by a spectacular Gulf Fritillary butterfly, warming its wings in the autumn sun, __and adding even more beauty to a Sobralia bud.
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Orchids Hiding in Plain Sight
Australia is home to many unusual plants, including some orchids which hide in plain sight. They grow leaves year after year, but rarely flower, until there’s a bushfire. Pyrorchis nigricans, also known as the Fire Orchid or Red Beak, bursts into bloom in the year after a fire. Learn more about these scorched orchids in Australian Geographic.
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Fall Color in Colorado
Orchids may be our favorites, but natural beauty comes in many forms. That certainly includes the stunning fall colors of the Colorado Rockies. Dave __and I recently visited Southwest Colorado, __and enjoyed awe-inspiring mountains gilded in their autumn foliage.
The bright yellow leaves belong to aspens. In the thin mountain air around 10,000 feet (3048 m), there were a few orange and red varieties, but most were sporting yellow. Contrasted against green conifers and blue sky, the golden aspens easily stand out, whether it’s a single tree or a vast forest. A couple of idyllic mountain lakes, along with Columbines and a Dahlia from local gardens, complete the picture for one of Mother Nature’s best shows.
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