Chiloschista usneoides (Asian Ghost Orchid)

[Bud]

This orchid specie is native to the region of the northern Himalayas, starting from Garhwal in the west, through Nepal up to Sikkim. These plants are found at an altitude of about 1650 m. It is an almost leafless (in early spring I found two small leaves appear but it dropped when it got warmer), hot to warm growing, miniature epiphyte or lithophyte with many long, twisted, tufted roots.
I do not expose this orchid plant to direct sunlight and I placed it on the east facing window of the kitchen. I provide it with good air circulation indoors in winter with an electric humidifier with fan. Currently this orchid plant is outside on the fire escape where it can be rained on and the humidity in Manhattan is still high.
Chiloschista usneoides do not produce leaves, and photosynthesis that normally takes place in the leaves, for this orchid plant, it takes place in the roots. Therefore, it is the roots that must be exposed to light. These plants are usually mounted on small branches. They usually grow better on relatively smooth surfaces, but it happens that I inherited this on a piece of nylon netting.
I give it delicate morning spritzing every other day, especially during sunny hot weather, it protects this plant from over drying. I feed it fertilizer starting spring and I do not feed it when frost starts.
In the past years, this orchid plant gave me flowers maybe four or five and one spike. But when I stopped giving it winter rest and continued spraying water indoors in winter, this gave me several spikes and lots of flowers!

[Chris17]

Nice! Glad you figured out how to bloom it so well.

[Bud]

Originally Posted by Chris17

Nice! Glad you figured out how to bloom it so well.

Thanks for the visit and your kind words

[Paul]

How big is your plant?

[Bud]

Originally Posted by Paul

How big is your plant?

On the second picture you may look at the cinderblocks background; the dimensions of a cinderblock is 8 X 8 X16. The longest root is nine inches and the spikes are about the same. There are eleven spikes and more or less 32 roots all entangled on the nylon netting. It took three months for the spikes to open its blooms and the buds were there longer. This is a 9 yr old plant. You can see this plant as a two year old seedling when I first posted it seven years ago on the hygrolon topic.

[estación seca]

Great growing. It looks wonderful.

[Bud]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Great growing. It looks wonderful.

Thank you!

[u bada]

Truly beautiful. I love leafless orchids!

I have a few chiloschistas and I've struggled and struggled with them. The only time I was able to grow them well was when I lived in NYC years ago, go figure.

Even there I did grow under lights and used pure water, fairly bright light. Back then I used HIDs, now I use LED's, thinking it could be that, but just don't know. In fact LED's were too bright and I had to cut back. This year they haven't really started growing, just little leaves started and no growing root tips the whole darn year. I mist them like every day sometimes 2x day, fans to circulate in grow tank. Indoors year around. only thing left to try is on windowsill or outside but it's already fall so not sure... so have you noticed a growth cycle? any particular observations or tips for care?

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by u bada

Truly beautiful. I love leafless orchids!

I have a few chiloschistas and I've struggled and struggled with them. The only time I was able to grow them well was when I lived in NYC years ago, go figure.

Even there I did grow under lights and used pure water, fairly bright light. Back then I used HIDs, now I use LED's, thinking it could be that, but just don't know. In fact LED's were too bright and I had to cut back. This year they haven't really started growing, just little leaves started and no growing root tips the whole darn year. I mist them like every day sometimes 2x day, fans to circulate in grow tank. Indoors year around. only thing left to try is on windowsill or outside but it's already fall so not sure... so have you noticed a growth cycle? any particular observations or tips for care?

I had one for a while in my Phoenix growing room. It only grew when humidity was very high by my standards, over 60%.

I have lived in Orange County, and I would guess Chiloschistas would only grow well outdoors in S Cal if in a microclimate with very much higher humidity than usual.

[Bud]

Manhattan has very high humidity in summers and this is why this plant is happy outdoors with soft breeze and warmth....but not direct sun. This plant also loves rain. But in winter I have to give it extra humidity with an electric humidifier with fan and even if it is in the east facing window, it still needs added light. And keep on watering and spritzing even in winter. Do not let it feel frost or too cold (in the Himalayan mountains it did experience freezing cold in situ but the bark of trees exhude thermal heat from the sun so it really do not freeze to death.