Coelogyne zurowetzii flowering in my backyard

Here’s that beautiful Coelogyne zurowetzii I promised, looking very wild! No, this wasn't photographed in the jungle. This was shot in my backyard!


There are actually two divisions here, I tied them to this mango tree in my backyard about 3 years ago. The smaller division flowered about two weeks ago while the larger one just finished flowering. Also tagged to this tree is one Dendrobium anosmum and a large clump of Epidendrum. I’ll be tying two or three more species onto it over the next few days.


Here’s the larger division in flower. Grew from a 3-4 psedobulb cutting. It’s actually still quite small; slow growth as I don’t fertilize it regularly. In fact, since tying to this tree, I think I’ve only fertilized once, also never watered, basically just leave them to fend for themselves like in the real jungle. Would be larger with more bulbs if the rain and nature didn’t claim some new growths.


And this one’s the smaller division, note the old spike from about two weeks ago in the centre of the photo. IMO, if you have a large garden with trees and you live in the tropics (lots of rain!) then this is the best way to grow tropical orchids - just tag them to trees!


It is easily distinguished from other similar looking species by the very flat p-bulbs and scentless flowers. The pbulbs overlap one another giving the appearance of some kind of multi-segmented invertebrate. In fact, some locals call it the “centipede orchid”! :-)