Orchid of the Week: Brassavola Nodosa

I’m WAY overdue for an orchid of the week post—or any post, really. So sorry about that, folks! I hope you’ll forgive me for being totally MIA. This week’s featured orchid is inspired by my mom, who texted me a photo of her blooming Brassavola nodosa yesterday. So in honor of her good growing, this post is about the B. nodosa!

This orchid is native to Mexico, the West Indies, Venezuala, and Peru. It’s known as the “Lady of the Night” orchid because it is fragrant, but only in the evening. Some say its fragrance is citrusy and gardenia-like, which sounds rather lovely to me. Let’s have a look at some photos, shall we?

Photo credit: brassavolaorchids.com
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Orchid of the Week: Dendrobium Aggregatum

Surprise! Bet you thought you weren’t going to see an Orchid of the Week post today, didn’t you? This regular feature has totally fallen by the wayside lately, and for that I apologize. I’ve actually been busier with work over the past few weeks, and then last Friday I was out and about preparing for that hurricane thing that happened.

Anyway, this week I’m featuring another orchid from my own collection, the Dendrobium aggregatum. For the record, mine has not bloomed yet, but I’ve only had it for a few months. This orchid is a bright, cheery plant that can produce loads of yellow blooms:

Photo credit: David in SWGA, Flickr
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Orchid of the Week: Brassolaeliocattleya Hawaiian Passion

After a multi-week break, Orchid of the Week is back! And this time I chose my newest orchid, Brassolaeliocattleya Hawaiian Passion “Carmela.” It’s a gorgeous specimen that I bought on my visit to Cal Pacific Orchid Farm a few weeks ago. The plant that I bought was in bud, but I snapped a pic of a beautiful one in bloom while I was there:

Amazing green and cream blooms
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Orchid of the Week: Dendrobium Green Lantern

This week’s orchid is the Dendrobium Green Lantern, in honor of the movie that comes out in theaters today. Okay, so this is just a good excuse to post a picture of Ryan Reynolds in costume:

Green Lantern, The Superhero

On to the Green Lantern orchid. The Dendrobium Green Lantern is a lovely hybrid of Thai and Vietnamese species (Dendrobium Dawn Maree x Dendrobium cruentum) with a furry coral-colored lip and white petals with light green striping.

Photo credit: joeysplanting, Flickr
Photo credit: catwalker808, orchidboard.com
Photo credit: floridanaturepictures.com

I’m not really sure where the “Green Lantern” name came from, because there are certainly much greener orchids out there (like the Aeranthes grandiflora, which I featured awhile back). But hey, it’s still gorgeous no matter what. And who knows—maybe it has some sort of superpowers.  😀

Orchid of the Week: Platystele jungermannioides

Last week I featured the tallest orchid in the world, so this week I’m going to talk about the smallest orchid in the world: Platystele jungermannioides. This little guy was discovered accidentally by American botanist Lou Jost as he was inspecting a completely separate plant from Ecuador. He found it growing among the roots of the other plant! According to an article in The Independent, this orchid is 2.1 mm wide; here’s a photo with a ruler for reference:

Photo Credit: Lou Jost
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