Neobenthamia gracilis

[pheli]

Neobenthamia gracilis is terrestrial from Africa.
It likes sufficient sunlight to grow and to bloom.
In Taiwan, it blooms all year round.

[isurus79]

Very nice!! I love the scent on this species.

FYI- This is actually called Polystachya neobenthamia.

[pheli]

Originally Posted by isurus79

Very nice!! I love the scent on this species.

FYI- This is actually called Polystachya neobenthamia.

Thanks for the information. Polystachya are seldom seen here except Polystachya paniculata and this one here in my country.

[MrHappyRotter]

This is one of the "oddballs" that I've been growing for about 20 years now.

It's an interesting species and I love the scent of the flowers. However, it gets too tall for my indoor grow space and it's very hard to provide it enough light in the winter while indoors. Fortunately, it's a tough plant and fast growing (once it gets some size on it), so it seems to recover fairly quickly after suffering through the winter.

Although it ends up looking pretty pitiful and scraggly after months indoors, in its prime this is a very attractive orchid (to me) even when not in bloom because it has a delicate, graceful bamboo appearance. Another thing I like it about it is that the pot can sit on the ground/floor and the growths are tall enough that the flowers are basically at sniffing height without having to pick the plant up or bend over to catch a whiff.

I had a nice big tangerine sized cluster of flowers on one of my plants this year, then tropical storm/system Micheal came raging through the area, gave us about an hour of 50 - 70 mph ( 80 - 115 kpm) winds, and blew every single bud and flower off the plant. How rude!

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by MrHappyRotter

This is one of the "oddballs" that I've been growing for about 20 years now.

It's an interesting species and I love the scent of the flowers. However, it gets too tall for my indoor grow space and it's very hard to provide it enough light in the winter while indoors. Fortunately, it's a tough plant and fast growing (once it gets some size on it), so it seems to recover fairly quickly after suffering through the winter.

Although it ends up looking pretty pitiful and scraggly after months indoors, in its prime this is a very attractive orchid (to me) even when not in bloom because it has a delicate, graceful bamboo appearance. Another thing I like it about it is that the pot can sit on the ground/floor and the growths are tall enough that the flowers are basically at sniffing height without having to pick the plant up or bend over to catch a whiff.

I had a nice big tangerine sized cluster of flowers on one of my plants this year, then tropical storm/system Micheal came raging through the area, gave us about an hour of 50 - 70 mph ( 80 - 115 kpm) winds, and blew every single bud and flower off the plant. How rude!

I've noticed full sun (zero shade) here in Texas during the warm months (March through October) keeps the growths fairly short (~2 feet tall). I give it artificial light during the winter, but the brutal summer outside seems to keep it short for me.

[Paul]

Interesting plant. Too bad about the size .... Puts it well out of my space restrictions.