Campanulorchis thao

This is a species previously known as Eria thao. The genus Eria has been split into genera including Campanulorchis and Strongyleria, but whatever the name, this is a group of really interesting Asian orchids characterised by hairy buds, and frequently hairy stems and leaves too.

We have been lucky enough to encounter a large number of Eria species in our travels to the Himalayas and South East Asia where we found them growing in both warm and cool seasonally dry forest.

Campanulorchis thao is reported from Southern China and Vietnam and is likely to be also native to the forests we have explored in Laos which experience warm wet summers and cooler dryer winters. 

The species has attractive round bulbs to cope with the dry season and the short thick leaves suggest it grows in open woodland with good light.

I have included a photograph of the vegetatively similar Eria pannea (Strongyleria pannea) below, growing in open woodland in Souther Laos.

Campanulorchis thao is reported over a wide range of altitudes from hot lowland forests to cool mountain forests and so we are experimenting with plants in both our Cloud Forest greenhouse (min 12C) and our warm Lowland Forest indoor cabinets (min 17C) and we will let you know which habitat it prefers.