About Myself

My photo
Singapore
Hi ! Welcome to my blog on orchids and landscape design. I have been growing various type of orchids along the balcony of my high-rise apartment since 2004. My favorite orchid genus of all times are Bulbophyllum, Onicidium as well as Cattleya alliances. I love bulbophyllum for their exotic form and intricate 'movable lip'. Although I have been growing orchids with little success, due to the lack of sufficient sunlight and low humidity, as well as strong wind which prevail at my growing area, I still try to find the right types of orchids for my flat through trial and error. Occassionally, my orchids have surprised me with unexpected bloom that would make my day! Beside orchids, I also enjoyed strolling in public gardens and parks, and at the same time looking at the landscape design intent. In my blog, I'll be sharing with you, photographs of orchids that I adore and as well as interesting parks that I have ventured. I hope you will enjoy these photos too and please feel free to leave some comments or thoughts. Thank you for viewing my photo blog.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Bulbophyllum medusae

Bulbophyllum medusae
R(Lindley) Rchb.f. 1861
Section Corymbosa (Bl) Avery.1994
  
Flower buds waiting for the 'big hair' day
Cluster of flower buds





















This spectacular orchid, Bulbophyllum medusae or common known as 'Medusa's Bulbophyllum' with snake or mop-like flower with reference to Gorgon Medusa's head of snakes (as featured in Greek's tale  'Clash of The Titans').

It is a warm to hot growing lowland Bulbophyllum species and its habitat range from Malaysia, Thailand to Indonesia. It is also a native orchid of Singapore, but now the orchid is quite rare due to urbanization.




Flower: top view
Fortunately, our National Parks Board(NPARKS) have been making an effort to re-introduce many uncommon native orchids back to the existing trees in parks and city areas for the past recent years, under their orchid conservation program.

Each pseudobulb is capable of bearing clusters of over 20 beige yellow flowers with sepals of at least 12 cm in length. Fine red spots on the flower petal as well as the yellow lip are a distinct characteristic of this orchid. An albino form of the plant without spots on its flower is also known to exist.

It resembles Bulbophyllum vaginatum, but Bulbophyllum medusae have bigger flower and longer sepal.

I have observed the orchid's flowering period at my balcony is between the cooler months of late October - November. It also requires a brighter condition to bloom as compared to most of the Bulbophyllum species.

Comparison between Bulbophyllum vaginatum (left) and Bulbophyllum medusae (right)









 

 
Flower: Close-up view




Plant in bloom is a beautiful sight to behold!

I would also like to introduce you a Youtube video showing the flowering stage of bulbophyllum medusae shot on time lapse. Enjoy! 

Posted by at
Labels: , , ,

1 comment:

  1. arthuriusNovember 24, 2011 at 10:59 PM

    I was going to buy the medusae at Woon Leng's booth during WOC 2011 but the bulbs' leaves are not that nice. $15 for a small pot with 3-5 bulbs and flower(s). Ended up with a pot of B.fascinator instead!

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)