Barbosella gardneri

Autumn is Barbosella season at Isle of Portland Orchids and today we have One of our two really tiny species. Both Barbosella gardneri and Barbosella dusenii (photo below) have tiny leaves 4mm long but Barbosella garderi has much larger elegant flowers on the thinest of stems.

Barbosella gardneri is native to the Mata Atlantica Forest in Southern East Brazil and is found in cloud forest on coastal mountains from 800m to 1600m elevation. We have come across Barbosella species in the mountains around Macae de Cima in Rio State finding them in ancient primary forest at 1200m where they use their creeping habit to encircle branches in the lower canopy. 

In cultivation we grow all our barbosellas mounted on cork bark where their tiny leaves can spread across the surface and root as they go. The wonderful floriferous display results from their habit of flowering from old and new leaves.

We grow plants in a shaded spot in our cloud forest greenhouse min 12C which matched the environment we explored in Brazil. We spray plants with water daily (twice a day in hot weather) and feed up to 500 microseimens in the summer months.