Orchid Suggestions for a Vivarium

[connorology]

Originally Posted by Paul

A cautionary note for you, Connor... The cham's weight and grip strength would not be healthy for the plants.

A very good point. I am keeping that in mind, and it's part of the reason I am only now adding orchids. I wanted to watch how he'd interact with the environment for a few months before adding anything rare or expensive.

By and large he doesn't seem to mess with plants that are on the walls. I have some fragile(ish) plants he can get at - there's a Nepenthes sanguinea in the back corner mounted into the backdrop, and he has yet to cause any damage to it, and I have bromeliads that he'll occasionally walk around but he doesn't show a ton of interest in. He will crawl all over anything mounted towards the center of the enclosure, though he never did break the Phal's flower spike when it was in bloom, despite frequently poking at it. He also hasn't killed any of my Tillandsias yet.

That said, chameleon damage will eventually occur, though if trends hold it should be mild. I was actually at a local botanical garden yesterday looking at their orchid collection to try to assess durability. They had some mounted Restrepias that felt to me like they wouldn't be immediately destroyed if the chameleon decided to crawl on them, that's part of the reason I am interested in the genus.