Small urns

Hoya heuschkeliana from PNG - a  small species with interesting tiny flowers.

A mass flowering event

There is a fleeting explosion of blooms on the otherwise plain-looking canes of a Thrixspermum species during the rainy season. The flowers are at their best in the cool morning - by mid-noon, most of them would have deteriorated into sticky globs.

Thrixspermum comprises 100 plus species of small to mid-size old-world orchids with a vandaceous growth pattern. I cannot pin down the exact name of this one as I had it for years and could not even recall its habitat locality but it does not look like the usual local species like centipeda or acuminatissimum. Many of them have similar blooms and one needs to examine them in details to determined its exact identity. The long sepals and petals makes this a very eye-catching species but the genus as a whole does not capture too many fans due to its ephemeral and smallish flowers. This particular plant can take light shade to full sun and is rather maintenance-free as long as high humidity is maintained.