Diplocaulobium (Dendrobium) aratriferum
 

It produces the occasional flower fairly often, a couple of times of year produces a lovely flush bloom, with the fragrance of watermelon. Flowers are sooo ephemeral. Blink and you'll miss the show. The buds appear almost out of nowhere, they started about 2 days ago, yesterday there were lots of them. This morning, at 8 am the buds were still closed but had reached their full size. By 9:30 or 10 AM they were fully open (and I grabbed my photos). At 3 PM, they're already starting to close, by sunset they'll be done.

If the purpose of a flower is to get pollinated, this is speed-dating! The pollinator (whatever it is) must be very short-lived, and in nature maybe provides some sort of trigger. In "captivity", no idea what triggers the blooming. (I have made many guesses, but none has correlated with any consitency.)

I love forums where the people are dedicated enough to catch fleeting moments like you have Roberta, thanks for sharing with us!

That’s great, Roberta.

Interesting story on that one. Nice catch!

Excellent, Roberta. And kudos to you for growing something so rewarding but fleeting... ephemeral for sure! I wouldn't have the attention span and would likely be complaining here about how mine hadn't bloomed for ten years. :rofl:

These are just a reminder to look at my orchids often. I don't DO much... don't fertilize much, and pot less, but they do get loved.

Lovely. Had 1 in the past but found a similar replacement-Bulbo. nitidum with its small,shy flowers that grows mounted, mossy and low lit. Home is getting cooler than I think she wants but...!