Bifrenaria calcarata

[Frdemetr]

Bifr calcarata and its typical "up curved" spur, not "down curved", as it commonly occurs in Bifrenaria. The smell is soft and have something chemical, like rubber or plastic.

[Lagoon45]

Love these bifs, they remind me of proms. Such sweet blossoms

[tuvoc]

Very nice.

Kim

[Angurek]

You're the king of Bifrenarias. I didn't know this many species existed until you posted them, or that there is so much morphological diversity within the genus. Beautiful plant.

Do Bifrenarias require bright light to grow and flower, or can they tolerate shade? I've been wanting to get some, but I'm not sure if they'd do well under such conditions.

[Frdemetr]

Hi Carl!

The genus Bifrenaria is small, has about 20 species, almost exclusively in Brazil (only one amazonic species - Bifrenaria venezuelana - is shared with another country). In my collection just missing the two amazonic species - Bifr longicornis and venezuelana - whose growing is difficult in my area (I already killed two Bifr longicornis!) and the extremely rare Bifr verboonenii (but I've seen it in an exhibition, the plant was sold for about U $ 1,000.00 at the time - unfortunately the buyer failed to make a selfing, this Bifr is sterile in the selfing, it's necessary to find another specimen - in some collection, 'cause Bifr verboonenii is extinct in the wild)
The Bifrenaria like lots of light, even direct sunlight part of the day is very welcome for those species with large flowers (harrisoniae, tyrianthina, calcarata etc..) Species of small flowers (former "Stenocoryne") may tolerate some shade, since that with strong indirect light (leucorrhoda , aureo-fulva, stefanae, vitellina, racemosa, clavigera, charlesworthii etc.)