Amitostigma keiskei
 

I've been judging for a long time... And doing shows for even longer (20+ years). I don't think I've ever seen anything quite like these before. I was stunned. They are awesome and incredibly cute. When I saw them I almost thought they were plastic, and the next guess was, "what idiot brings non-orchids to orchid judging?". These are orchids, I'm the idiot.

I know next to nothing about these. The exhibitor (Hideki Kobayashi - if I remember the name right - no guarantees and I apologize in advance) told me they were Japanese, terrestrial, and easy to grow (for him). Must be, he brought almost a dozen of them. Four were awarded. My pictures will not do them justice, you'll have to wait for the award photos.

If I ever see these for sale, I will be hard pressed not to mortgage the house.
http://littlefrogfarm.com/images_for...a_keiskei2.jpg
http://littlefrogfarm.com/images_for...a_keiskei1.jpg
http://littlefrogfarm.com/images_for...a_keiskei3.jpg
http://littlefrogfarm.com/images_for...a_keiskei4.jpg

Yes, they are great.

Although not common in cultivation, they are known by some of the terrestrial orchid people here in Europe.

Glad to see them in this forum. :)

oh my! :cloud9:
love these!

Great little orchids. Were they awarded for botanical merit, culture or quality?

I wasn't on the team, but I believe they were quality awards.

Rob

I can see why you thought "plastic", they are perfect plants. Please post the vender if you find one.
Joann

These are not common in cultivation here in the US.

They can be seen floating around here and there on rare occasions.

This species has several different cultivars in the trade.

If I'm not mistaken, the wild form is rare in the trade.

Habenaria relatives.

His name is Hideka Kobayashi, and he occasionally sells plants on ebay (user id sanyasoh). I got most of my Amitostigmas from him. See my other posts (here and here) for the ones that bloomed this spring.
Hideka won two CHMs for Amitostigma lepidum plants earlier this year. The photos are on the Cincinnati Judging Center website.

Fabulous, but all cold-growers, so won't do well here.

From Jay Pfahl's orchidspecies.com website:

"There are 24 species in this little known dwarf terrestrial genus occuirng in The Himalayas, Japan and China characterized by having tuberous roots, a few basal to cauline leaves and a more or less loosely flowered inflorescence with the sepals and petals free, yet the petals are partially enveloped by the dorsal sepal to form a hood, the 3 lobed, midlobe prominently provided with a relatively short spur lip which is the largest floral segment, a very short column with large parellel approximate anther sacs which basally are not produced into distinct canals. There are 2 pollina with short caudicles with the glandss enclosed in small separate bursicula. There is a single, sessile stigma which is V shaped, a process like staminode and they are adnate to the sides of the lip."

I can do cool growers! :biggrin:

Those are adorable! Yet another for the wishlist!

Ray, I think you can grow these in Pennsylvania if you keep them from freezing in the winter.

Not in my warm greenhouse!

Absolutely striking! A quick web search turned up exactly zero vendors in the US (including eBay)!

Does anyone know of a US vendor with this beauty for sale?

Thanks!

- J

Try checking eBay again today :P

No so. Amitostigma lepidum is from South Japan, and mine is actively growing now. This one is an odd winter growing summer dormant species. A. keiskei can take some cold temp maybe down to zone 7a or b range.

Somebody contacted me last spring how I grew these. I casually asked him how he got them. He wrote his friend gave them. Ok. Didn't quite feel like responding quick, so I let it slide. Another inquiry. I was curious who he was, and found he had some awards on an orchid species from the same country. I have a huge problem with people messing with clonal names that have been long accepted. So I told him I did not feel like giving the info. because what he did was right. Basically, he got upset, and wrote me that I should not be an AOS judge if I did not want to help another judge.

Fast forward. I had some Bletilla, and somebody won the auction. His name looked familiar. I Googled and found that was the guy. I also found his FB, and he had pictures of A. keiskei and something else that was mislabeled. I notified this guy that we should cancel the transaction.

Something nagged me, so I checked his eBay feedback. He had a whole bunch of feedback from China and Thai vendors that send plants w/o documents. And guess what? He had feedback from a Hong Kong vendor that sends these orchids w/o paper work. Last time when I check, he even had a feedback from a Chinese vendor that were selling presumably wild collected Paph. rothschildianum and Paph. virens. Amazing.

They are very cute little orchids! Thank you for posting them! :)

Really cool!

---------- Post added at 12:33 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:50 AM ----------

As I've been reading today I found this thread about the same plants.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...a-keiskei.html

littlefrog and lambelkip

I am sorry, but could you remove my name and information? I tried to contact lambelkip by sending a message, but you do not have the option.

Had a small exhibit at Michigan Orchid Society past weekend. Tried to do something similar at the MAOC show in Nashville, but did not quite work out.