Epidendrum lacustre 'Wow Fireworks' AM/AOS

[Roberta]

This species occurs over a wide area of Central and South America. The typical form is white and green. This example is the purple form native to Panama. It's my pride and joy... generally I don't take plants in for judging, since the things that appeal to me mostly don't fit the criteria of the judging system. (I like weird things) This one, though, put on a great show - the olive-green flowers with purple tips and pristine white lip, in big sprays (9 of them as I recall) on top of green and purple leaves, do look like a burst of fireworks. When it was awarded, I needed a cultivar name and this one just fit.

It's a super-robust plant that has been divided (and shared) several times since then. The culture is "full sun, sopping wet". It lives on my patio, so it gets both heat and what passes for cold (occasionally close to freezing) I have sphagnum in the pot under the bark , which helps keep the moisture level up. (A 2 gallon pot holds a LOT of sphagnum!) I hang it with my L. anceps - high above the Cyms, where it gets maximum light. One year I put the plants on the bench with the Cyms (a bit less light) and the purple color was rather washed out. Currently, I have one division that I have on the ground near the Cyms, and note how much lighter the color is. Just the difference between ground level and overhead! The lighter one is a division of the same plant.

Photos - whole inflorescence, flower closeup of the sun-kissed plant, and flower with just a bit less light. Colors are pretty accurate to what I see.

[estación seca]

Beautiful sunkissed coloration! Congratulations on the previous award!

[smweaver]

That's a very cool plant. I've never heard of this species before now, but both plant and blooms are remarkable. It looks like it should have some fragrance--maybe? How tall does the plant get to be? Congratulations on the award as well.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Wow. Stunning. Well done!!

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by smweaver

That's a very cool plant. I've never heard of this species before now, but both plant and blooms are remarkable. It looks like it should have some fragrance--maybe? How tall does the plant get to be? Congratulations on the award as well.

Thanks on the award... actually first got a CCM, then brought it back for an even better blooming the next year.
I don't detect fragrance now, but I have noted it in my database so I have detected it before.(Cool and cloudy now, likely needs sun for that) As for size, the plant is around 18-20 inches (46-50 cm), in bloom the spikes and flowers take it into the 25-30 inch (63-76 cm) range. Not exactly windowsill size... I have seen some of these over at Andy's nursery that are much taller. So I don't know how much bigger it can get, but definitely a lot bigger. (I keep dividing it to keep it under control and don't fertilize much) It is really vigorous - often an old growth spawns two new ones so it doesn't take long to outgrow the pot. If I had better sun at ground level so it didn't need to hang it, it would do great in a big landscape pot.

[smweaver]

Thanks for providing the description of plant size. That's a lot bigger than I thought it would be, based on the photographs (although it's not always easy to judge size by photos if there's nothing else to reference the plant against). I think I might give Andy a call about this one.

[Bayard]

Very cool! No pun intended...
On second thought, that’s not really a pun.