Anathallis aristulata

We have many tiny orchids in our collection but this is one of the most freely flowering mini miniatures.

Anathallis aristulata is really tiny with leaves around a cm long and thin flower stems with one or two delightful creamy yellow flowers 5mm long. The name aristulata means 'spiky' which is a great way to describe the flowers with their thin pointed petals, sepals that hide a little lip that is rounder and a darker yellow. As you can see from the photograph a plant the size of my finger nail has 26 flowers and buds - amazing.

Anathalis aristulata is native to brazil where it grows in wet forests from 200-1600m including those we have explored around Macae de Cima in Rio State. The species has fleshy leaves and unusually for such a tiny plant enjoys relatively good light. 

We grow all of our Anathallis species mounted on cork bark to show of their delightful growth habit. We keep plants in our cloud forests greenhouse (min 12C) although plants would be happy warmer.  We water plants daily and twice a day in warm weather.