The Cymbidium Sad Story

This is the profuse growth of my native Cymbidium orchids. It started as a few plants clasping a lanzones tree, which through the years have grown to this size. We can see that a hen cannot resist the temptation of using its center as a nest, maybe it looks so cozy for her to lay her eggs on.

It has been producing lots of cascading inflorescences through the years. The flowers are slightly fragrant, which open in succession in one spike. Each spike lasted for ~1 week, when other spikes begin to grow , so the whole series of flower show lasts for about 2 months.

It is a native species,  C. finlaysonianum, and you can see the elongated internodes of the spikes, reaching more than one meter in length. Another native species of the country is the reddish colored C. atropurpureum. These species, unlike the hybrids, can tolerate neglect and lengthy dry season. However, dry season last year maybe overly long that killed most of the plants.

  Above shows the newly growing spike of this plant from the remnant of the long dry season last year.

You can see the extent of drying in this photo. Most plants died, leaving only a few green at the back. Despite that,  some spikes are still produced by the survivors. The hens cannot nest on it anymore, as the eggs will be vulnerable and  will easily slide down. My mother removed this large chunk of dead remains, leaving only the few green ones.

I forgot to say, the lanzones tree also died leaving the orchid unshaded. I hope it tolerates the coming dry season, which hopefully will not be as long as last year.
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The above 2 photos, at the left shows the dead plants with a few remaining greens, and at the right with only the remaining green plants. It would probably be years before inflourescences will come out again consecutively. More vegetative growth is needed first before regaining the old clump size. No more sweet fragrance from it for the next few years. Definitely, we will miss it.

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