Green onion orchid

[wjbrown]

The local name for this is green onion - referring to the round leaves. It grows wild in Minas Gerais, Brazil. This is my friend's orchid, and she gave me a clump. We can no longer get boards of fern like she used. Should I grow it on a packed board of coconut fiber? What is it?

[Ross]

It's a Brassavola. I suspect nodosa, but could be a hybrid form as well. Scented, right? Mine are growing mounted on cedar shingles like you would use on your roof. You can use chunks of grape vines, hardwood slabs, cedar, or cork bark. Just about any stable material, because once you mount it you don't want to necessarily do it all over again if it outgrows the mount or the mount material rots.

[wjbrown]

Thanks a lot for the ID. I'm pretty sure it's not a commercial hybrid. Very sweet scented, releases its perfume at night.

[wjbrown]

I just looked up pics of nodoso, and I think the leaves are too thick. Mine are thinner, but with the same crease down the middle.
Also, nodoso not really native to Brazil, and I'm pretty sure mine is a native species. I'm sort of leaning towards Brassavoa perrinii. Here's a site for a photo: IOSPE PHOTOS
What do you think?

[cb977]

You may have found your answer! Brassavola perrinii looks like it could be the one!
It's definitely a Brassavola...but I find that they all look too much alike for me to figure out which is which

Beautiful plant!

[cneos]

Of the 24 species of brassavola, at least 8 species occur naturally in Brazil including flagellaris, nodosa and tuberculata. Flowers of each of these are similar.

How many flowers per inflorescence on your plant? How do leaves arrange themselves? Is the inflorescence erect or pendant?

On nodosa, there’s a single terete or semi-terete, succulent leaf growing from the tip of an elongated pseudobulb. On small plants, leaves are about five inches, but on mature, robust plant, leaves up to a foot. nodosa plants have an upright, gangly growth habit; pseudobulbs form dense clumps that can reach 18 inches tall.

nodosa bears 3 to 5 white or green-white flowers with natural spread of 6 to 16.10 cm (2 ½ to 6 or 7 inches) on a 6 to 8-inch inflorescence that arises from the base of the leaf. Sepals and petals are long and narrow and the dorsal ‘nods’ forward; nodosa has a heart-shaped lip that's tubular at base and there may be purple or dark red spotting inside the tube.

The stance of flowers on your plant suggest tuberculata rather than nodosa. Whatever, it's a beauty.

Thank you for sharing!

[wjbrown]

Glad to know it's a Brassavola. I've looked at the photos on Google images for both flagellaris and tuberculata and I can't tell if mine is one or the other. So I'm going to post two more pictures that show more of the green structure. Not as aesthetically pleasing, but perhaps those of you who have more experience will be able to form a better opinion.

[cneos]

I grow nodosa and tuberculata. The flowers on the two are almost indistinguishable except that nodosa has deep red-violet spotting inside the tube. I grow my nodosa on a cork slab; the leaves have a relatively upright growth habit and surround the slab. Inflorescences are erect and nearly in-line with the foliage but have a slight cascading effect when heavy with flowers.

When I got tuberculata, it was bare-root in a 2" basket. As it grew, 2" basket was slipped into a 4" basket, etc. with a handful of coarse fir bark, charcoal and ground oyster shells. tuberculata's leaf growth habit is downward; flowers rise above and cascade over foliage.

I'm told that breeders like nodosa as a parent because it brings its upright habit (leaves and flowers) to its offspring. But there's a place for either one in my book.

Check out H&R Nursery for some great hybrids of nodosa ... Little Stars is a knock-out!