A few more Oeceoclades

A few months ago, I acquired a few Oeceoclades from The Huntington Botanical Gardens: O. maculata, O. peyrotii, and O. spathulifera. The really wonderful thing about these is that each came with locality data, so I know this O. maculata, an otherwise very common orchid that has become naturalized in the Caribbean and Florida, is the offspring of plants collected in Tôlanaro, Madagascar. I also acquired O. monophylla, which was described in 1976 as a distinct species, but has recently been lumped into O. maculata.

The genus Oeceoclades was revised in 1976 by Leslie Andrew Garay and Peter Taylor, who expanded it to incorporate many plants previous placed in Eulophia or Eulophidium. Those of you who grow carnivorous plants will probably recognize Peter Taylor as the author of *the* monograph on Utricularia.

As I mentioned in my post on O. gracillima, these orchids aren't especially popular. Their flowers are small, brown or green, and not particularly showy. But what they lack in the floral department they more than make up for in richly patterned and often colorful foliage. Here is O. monophylla:

O. spathulifera is perhaps my favorite species. There is something reptilian about its patterned leaves, which remind me of a reticulated python or Gaboon viper. This photo doesn't quite do the plant justice:

That one has a new growth, which you can see to the left. Oeceoclades seem to be fairly slow growing, producing only one or two new pseudobulbs each spring or summer. Around that time, they may send up a flower spike, like my O. peyrotii:

The spike is emerging next to the new growth. O. peyrotii is much greener than other species and lacks a bold pattern, but there some subtle mottling and the fibrous tunic on the pseudobulbs adds to its charm.

Like O. gracillima, I grow these rather dry, watering about once per week in the summer and much less frequently in the winter. As for the potting medium, I use a standard cactus mix that contains mostly peat and sand, and add to that fine-grade orchid bark, pumice, and lava rock to create a fast-draining but moisture-retentive substrate. I fertilize lightly in the summer and not at all during the winter. 

O. maculata is not in shape for a picture at the moment. I placed it outside with a number of other plants and the neighborhood squirrels, who love to dig into potted plants, chew Nepenthes pitchers, and otherwise wreak havoc on my plants, mauled it pretty badly. It is in recovery, though, and has new growth!