Bulbophyllum clandestinum
Bulbophyllum clandestinum is a miniature bulbophyllum that over time develops into a pendulous specimen. Flowers are produced in profusion all along the rhizome between the tiny, single leaved, pseudobulbs. The species is remarkably floriferous as it flowers all along its rhizomes old and new, and the flowers are really striking with their thin pointed petals.
Bulbophyllum clandestinum is a variable species found from India through South East Asia to Papua New Guinea. It is reported growing in warm forest at around 1000m altitude, and we have seen it open woodland at 1100m in Southern Laos around Paksong. This forest is warm but has cool nights in the winter, is very wet in the summer and dryer in the winter although the dry season has heavy dews that wet the plants.
In cultivation we find that it prefers to grow indoors rather than in our cool greenhouses and plants flourish in our IKEA display cabinets with a minimum of 17C. The natural habitat equated well with our indoor environment in the UK making this a straight forward species to grow. It comes from open woodland but shaded from full sun and so while not fussy about light, plants prefer not to be in a dark spot, so either near a window or for our plants near a grow light.
We grow plants both mounted and in pots and we keep plants well watered throughout the year.