Bloom Event - Dendrochilum abbreviatum

I have grown rather fond of Dendrochilum species. OK, they're not so big and showy as many of the orchids I grow, but they are a little different from the 'norm' (whatever that is) and the small flowers and lovely scents invite the viewer to take a closer look. I don't know what I was expecting from this species, really, other than to assume it would be somewhat similar to D. magnum. I got it from (shock horror) Burnham Nurseries (link to the side), along with D. latifolium. Vegetatively, it looks just as much like a small Aspidistra as the other larger Dendrochilum species do. The leaves are longer and rather narrower than D. magnum. The flower spikes appeared rather early on while new growth was very young, and the now opening flowers are displayed below the adult foliage, before the new foliage has unfurled.

The flowers themselves are of a similar size to D. magnum so on the large side for the genus, but still not large. They are an overall greenish colour. I was expecting a brownish coloured lip, at least according to the label, but at the moment the lip is the same colour as the rest of the flower. It is possible that the lip will darken as the flowers age, as is the case with D. magnum.

These two photos are essentially similar but they do show the nice spacing of the flowers on the spike. They are rather hard to photograph with any accuracy because not only are the flowers small, they also point downwards and it is awkward to get underneath the plant to take a photo. I really should invest in a better camera and tripod to take photos of tiny flowers (I rather ashamedly refer you to the tiny flower comments I made in an earlier post). The photos make the flowers look rather yellower than they actually are. They are scented but not as strongly as some other species of Dendrochilum can be. Again, this might be something that will develop over the coming days. It had been my intention to post about this species next week, but once the blooms started to open I couldn't help myself. Honestly, I'm like a child in a sweetshop.

This species originates from Java, although it is not common there. In cultivation, it seems to like the constant warmth of my growroom (no surprise given its origins), and does not like to dry out at all, even when it is not actively growing. I wonder if many Dendrochilum have a bad reputation because they do only put on growth at certain times of the year (usually late winter and spring), and appear to 'sulk' for months on end before eventually sending up new shoots. No amount of water, fertilizer, heat or threats will get them going before they've a mind to. The natural response to this behaviour is to assume that the plant is resting and that it wants a dry rest, but this doesn't seem to be the case with many Dendrochilum, and I have found that the only effect a dry rest will produce is premature leave drop.

According to what I read (at Dendrochilum.com) the pseudobulbs should be further spaced, at 5cm. It could be that the species is variable and the clone I have naturally has shorter internodes. My plant is definitely more 'clumpy' and would be rather hard to accommodate if it had 5cm rhizome between its pseudobulbs. It is worth bearing in mind that when dealing with the lesser grown botanicals such as this and many other Dendrochilum species, there isn't the wealth of information out there that you find for other more widely grown species. There is always going to be some speculation about the provenance of the plant you have.

There is an ingrained habit among orchid growers of assuming that their plant is the one that is correctly labelled while everyone else's is wrong. I have encountered this many times and have now given up commenting on many posts on various forum that I would otherwise find very interesting because of it. I try to remain open to the opinions of others where naming is concerned because there is always the chance that the mistake has been made either by me or by the person who sold me the plant. In the case of the above, I keep the name D. abbreviatum because it is the closest fit to the plant I have, and I wouldn't pretend to know better than either the nursery it came from or the taxonomists who gave it that name in the first place. We must remember that species are constantly being discovered (and lost) and that some plants that have been in cultivation for a very long time might not be correctly named according to modern knowledge.

At any rate, I am very pleased indeed with my Dendrochilum abbreviatum. I won't lie and say it was particularly cheap, but it seems keen to earn its keep and is easy to grow. It has produced five new growths which is three more than I was expecting, and correspondingly, has produced five flower spikes, too. I definitely think this plant will bulk up rather quickly and should start to produce even more impressive shows of flowers even than this one. It might not win a beauty contest when compared to Cattleyas or Vandas, but it has a beauty in its own right and I firmly believe more of these more obscure species should be grown.