Thursday, March 24, 2011

Plant Find: The Cucumber Orchid

Check out my newest orchid!

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Dockrillia cucumerina

It is commonly called the Cucumber Orchid, since it's leaves look like little cucumbers.  The species name is Dockrillia cucumerina - also named after the cucumber.  The basionym is Dendrobium cucumerinum, which is to say that it was formerly given this name, but has been moved to the Dockrillia genus now.  You will still see people refer to it by both names since many had become accustomed to the old name.  I purchased my plant from Botanica Ltd, as a bark mounted orchid of blooming size.

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Dockrillia cucumerina

I really enjoy orchids, because even the most common are really just amazing in detail when they bloom.  And so many of the blooms will last for a long time.  I have a Dendrobium which started blooming the week before Thanksgiving and lasted until this week before the first blooms started to wilt.  That is 4 months of blooms!  This orchid is grown more for it's unique foliage - another of my weaknesses - more than it's blooms.  It does have some pretty neat (albeit small) creamy colored blooms streaked with pink lines, which you can see here.

2 comments:

  1. That is quite unusual. Is yours growing on a bark piece?

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  2. Yes, mine is mounted to a piece of bark. As I understand they primarily grow on the underside of branches in the wild, so I have put mine in a kind of shady location in the greenhouse.

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