Oberonia myosurus culture?
 

Just got in Oberonia myosurus, I hope it is the proper ID because plants in the under-appreciated genus of Oberonia are often sold with the wrong ID (still Oberonia just wrong species). :( Pics posted bellow ;)

I was wonder what the cultural requirements are for this species? Right now I'm keeping it in intermediate conditions and misting twice a day.


Thanks!
~R

http://i.imgur.com/JILDbZnl.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/CGENHrSl.jpg

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It's apparently now considered to be Phreatia matthewsii. Check out Jay Pfahl's site.

looks like my plant came with the wrong ID, the leaves on the site have a defined flat side and are a lighter green. The leaves on mine are cylindrical terete leaves, and the flower on this is supposed to be a orange/red....

Ray I also ordered some kelpmax from you, supposed to come in tomorrow :biggrin:

Re Oberonia/Phreatia myosurus/mathewsii/cavaleriei, it is a bit of a taxonomic mess. Let me explain:
Some Oberonia and Phreatia have terete leaves (pencil round), and in the past, species have been wrongly assigned to one or the other genus.

The species epithet (e.g., the second part of a Genus-species name) myosurus belongs in the genus Phreatia. Within Phreatia, P. myosurus is a junior synonym of P. mathewsii.

In the past, the species epithet myosurus was associated with a biological species in the genus Oberonia, i.e., the species epithet myosurus was mis-applied to a species in Oberonia, instead of Phreatia.

The Oberonia species which was long wrongly called O. "myosurus", is properly referred to as O. cavaleriei.

Oberonia cavaleriei is usually sold under the moniker O. myosurus in the trade.

Is your head spinning yet? Read the above about 4 times, then it will sink in. Took me a while as well.

Your specimen looks vegetatively like O. cavaleriei. Grows intermediate to warm, may grow better potted or in basket (facultative lithophyte), officially grows in shade, but mine are in quite a bit of light (up to low Cattleya level) and still don't flower regularly, but are still dark green.

Apparently you saw my article in AOS Orchids on Misidentified orchids. For others interested, here's the reference:
Geiger, D. L. 2014. Adventures in misidentified orchids. Orchids 83(1): 174–176. pdf

If your plant flowers, I will be interested in images and possibly also preserved flowers for scanning electron microscopy. PM me. Thanks! It flowers from yellow green to salmon. Seems to be variable.

There are some other Oberonia species with terete leaves, but those I have not seen in the horticultural trade.

Have fun growing it. Can you tell me the vendor of your plant? I don't recognize the mount.

My head started spinning not long after purchase lol. Thanks for the cultural info and proper ID! I may end up potting it when more roots are sent out by one of the other fans, the ones currently growing have attached themselves to the wood. And yes I did see your article :)

It is mounted on swamp cypress and came from Ebay, seller is LAorchidjohn. They have a website as well, Louisiana Orchid Connection .

The plant is getting ready to bloom :biggrin:

http://i.imgur.com/YfXuZhD.jpg

Thanks for the source info. I sent him an e-mail. Will be interesting to see what color the flowers will be. There also seems to be quite a bit of size variation in the flowers among specimens. Last week I prepped a few for SEM and noticed that. If you can spare a few flowers for additional SEM work, that would be great. Thanks for considering it.

Your welcome, he had some other Oberonia species a while back (seed grown). Both the peduncle and rachis have increased in length since the last photo was taken. Still no sign of buds, but being small doesn't help lol. I'd be happy to send you some of the flowers once it blooms, though I'm unsure how to preserve them properly for SEM? (or just preserve them for shipping but still being viable for the SEM drying/prep process)

~R

Hi Nepenthesguy,

preservation of flowers for SEM is quite easy. Cut spike, put spike in high percentage alcohol. Ideal is 95% ethanol, but isopropyl alcohol (=rubbing alcohol), or even really strong vodka/rum, can also work. Put that spike in at least 5-10x volume of alcohol compared to spike; the spike will release water and dilute the alcohol. Maybe change alcohol after a day. After a couple of days, the spike is sufficiently preserved. Now it can be wrapped into a alcohol moistened paper towel, and be put into a container (glass, plastic) with tightly fitting lid. Given the small amount of alcohol on the paper towel, the specimen can be legally shipped by US postal service.

You will get in return some SEM images of your flower for your own use.

I'll be happy to reimburse you for expenses. I'll PM you my address. Thanks for considering it! I really appreciate it.

Resurrecting another old thread. Trying to get more comments on Oberonia!