Angraecum elephantinum

The name Angraecum elephantinum means gigantic angraecum but it is actually one of our smallest Angraecum species.

This plant  flowers every year and is now 12 years out of flask but still only 20cm tall. Of course it is the flower that is gigantic compared to the plant and the flower  pretty much hides the whole plant.

The species comes from the mountains of Madagascar and the plant can be grown quite cool – we are growing it in the nursery at a minimum of 12C. In common with many Madagascan angraecums it has a very long spur with nectar in the end and so is pollinated by very long tongued hawk moths. The large lip is there to guide the tongue to the opening of the spur at the top of the lip. Moth pollination also explains the night scent of the species. To me the scent of this species is a mixture of Deep Heat and almonds.

We collected seed from the species last year and will hopefully have seedlings available soon.