Dichaea longa- worth having a Thread to itself

[DirtyCoconuts]

I got this plant at the Miami show in January...it was not in great shape (dehydrated and basically no roots) so i was in full rehab mode and my expectations were quite low.


here it is right after the show...i was very excited to see there was a tiny spike on the end of two of the three stems..i wasn't expecting them to open, but happy that the plant was healthy enough to be moving through its normal cycles

Parsley has flowers? by J Solo, on Flickr


I unmounted it from the sphag ball it was in and placed it on a suspended mount (inverted) with a small coir pad underneath and wrapped in fake hydrolon
the buds kept developing and I kept watching

Dichaea longea by J Solo, on Flickr

Dichaea longea by J Solo, on Flickr

I was really delighted to see these beauties this morning..

Dichaea longa by J Solo, on Flickr

Dichaea longa by J Solo, on Flickr

not the sharpest of pics but it is tough to get close to a hanging flower that is about the size of a grain of rice...its windy here too lol

so much color and patterning in such a small space...no scent that i could detect but i have a bit of a cold

[Roberta]

A beautiful one! A genus I have had trouble with, not enough humidity I suspect. What I have found is that the growths can look quite dead, and then put out new growth. Is it in a basket or on a mount? If it is on a hapu'u (tree fern) mount over most of its length, the odds are improved for those new growths.

[DirtyCoconuts]

really? that is excellent info- i mounted just the bottom 4 inches or so to a ceder stick...i think i will remount it on a much longer stick with coir bound around the stick (to mimic the fern) and then i'll affix the length of the plant to the mount...

for some reason it looked like it wanted to be pendulous to me..thank you as always for your knowledge.....i'll show you the re-mount once it's done. i might not get to it this weekend....
(the renaissance festival comes through my area this time of year and i go way more than i should....what??? i like to drink and throw sharp weapons in costume.....don't judge me)

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

really? that is excellent info- i mounted just the bottom 4 inches or so to a ceder stick...i think i will remount it on a much longer stick with coir bound around the stick (to mimic the fern) and then i'll affix the length of the plant to the mount...

A hint... here's a Dichea that I saw growing on my Brazil trip. it forms mats on trees (but does then extend out). Little tiny roots from any of the nodes which can be growth points. It will do some pendulous growths, but I think having more areas where it can grab on and grow roots will help get it established.

The only Dichea that I have been able to keep alive for a number of years is D. glauca, which does have substantial roots at the base. So with your humidity, it might not matter as much.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Wow. That picture is worth 1,276,863 words, maybe 1,276,864

[SaraJean]

Originally Posted by Roberta

A hint... here's a Dichea that I saw growing on my Brazil trip. it forms mats on trees (but does then extend out). Little tiny roots from any of the nodes which can be growth points. It will do some pendulous growths, but I think having more areas where it can grab on and grow roots will help get it established.

Thanks for posting that! The description and the picture just helped me a lot. I just picked up my first Dichaea, Dichaea hystricina, for the terrarium and was wondering what to do with it. I would love to get a D. glauca eventually, such a hard to find though! (Plus, not sure I can get away with it my conditions...)