Bloom Event - Coelogyne usitana

I've been unbelievably excited about this species. My regulars will recall that I have but recently purchased this species and that it was already in spike when I got it so I can't really claim any credit for the flowers. I have a few hybrids of this species (Lyme bay, Bird in flight, etc) so I am interested to see the species flower. Although it's not to everyone's taste, I have to say I'm rather smitten with it. The overall colour is rather more green than many of these 'dowdier' coloured Coelogyne (i.e. any of them that aren't the brilliant white species and hybrids), with a gorgeous chocolate brown coloured lip which puts me in mind of chocolate limes. Don't ask me why.

The flowers face downward which is an adaptation to keeping the heavy rains of its country of origin from the centre of the flower and spoiling them. Of course, this isn't necessarily a desirable characteristic for orchid growers as the plants need to be grown in baskets to easily appreciate the flowers. I'm not growing it in a basket at least for the time being, but then I'm not concerned about the nodding habit of the flowers. From what I told, this is a characteristic that comes through into its hybrids very strongly, too.  We shall see.

I've held the flower up here so we can see the flower rather better. I really love that colour combination (and so do the hybridizers, though I'll be surprised if any of the hybrids are better than the species - it is really early days for Coelogyne hybrids). The flowers are produced in succession from an extending flower spike and this is only the first. I don't know how many flowers there will be. No scent that I can detect. Of course, to get a spectacular blooming the plant needs to have many lead growths with several spikes producing blooms simultaneously. Just give me time.

A photo of the entire plant. If you click the link at the beginning of this post to see the plant when I got it, you will notice that we have lost an old leaf but the new growth has grown considerably. The nodding flowers make the plant look somehow bashful. Quite lovely.