What are the longest orchid flower spikes?

[Purpoh]

I'm just curious how long orchid spikes can get. I think long ones are really pretty! Whether it is draping or growing straight up, what is the longest orchid spike you have seen or know about?

[Subrosa]

My Gongora fulva and G. rufescens have produced pendant spikes around 3' long.

[naoki]

Some Gramophyllum can have tall inflorescence (> 3m). For the small size of plants, Psychopsis makes long inflorescence (like 1.3m). If you can include the height of stem, some Sobrallia could be taller than 10m.

[PaphMadMan]

Myrmecophila can be > 2m, just the spike.

If you're going to include the whole length of stem for Sobralia, 10m doesn't even begin to approach Vanilla potential.

[Ray]

When I acquired a collection from a "divorce sale" several years ago, it included a window sill grown, in-spike Oncidium maculatum, and that spike eventually reached 11 feet in length.

[katrina]

Subrosa mentioned it but the tallest spikes I've ever seen were on a couple of Myrmecophila (formerly Schomburgkia) a friend has. The plants' spikes must have been at least 10' (over 3 m) tall. Needless to say, she doesn't grow those on a windowsill. Greenhouse grower.

One of my anceps (v veitchiana) has spikes that are around 4' long. Not the tallest spike but still very hard to accommodate under lights.

[Optimist]

Isn't Psycopsis very long? I think it belongs on this list.

[Orchid Whisperer]

Oncidium altissimum has long spikes that are commonly 4 to 6 feet long. There is a blogger in Puerto Rico that describes some of these plants having 10 foot long flower spikes. One that I had several years ago easily had 4+ foot long spikes.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Optimist

Isn't Psycopsis very long? I think it belongs on this list.

They sure can get that way!

[Myq]

About 15 years ago I was visiting a friend of a friends house and he was giving us a tour of his yard in the Palm Beach Florida area, and in one of his palm trees was an orchid that I will try my best to describe. It was late dusk and the light was fading. The main "bulb" was chunky like a Grammatophyllum , but about half that size and with a much hardier leaf. The plant was maybe 12 to 14 inches from root to leaf tip. They were a well established colony wrapping around the palm about 15 feet up in the air. The spikes were so long that they nearly reached down to the ground so about 12 feet long spikes with a cluster of maybe 6 or 8 flowers at the very end of the spike. because of the fading light I couldn't tell the exact color, but it was an exotic looking (not cultivated) type flower. It had about 12 or so spikes cascading down from the palm and I was just in awe of it. I know that the owner I met that day has passed on and some other lucky person owns that beautiful garden, otherwise I would show up and ask if I could have a cutting with ladder in hand. I found this thread via a google search hoping to find it's name, but it seems I have stumbled on a species so rare that none of my google searches have resulted with any joy.