Coelogyne saccolabium

We are fortunate to have many members of the Coelogyne genus in our collection including those that used to be called Dendrochilum's. The genus Dendrochilum has recently been included in Coelogyne as a result of molecular studies (DNA)

Coelogyne saccolaboium is typical of plants that were called dendrochilums with its dense flower spikes with about 50 charming little red flowers.

If you look closely you can see that each flower peeps out from under a pink bract and so it is work taking time to look directly into the flowers, and appreciate their really bright red colour.

The species is native to the Philippines where it is reported as growing in cool evergreen forests above 1200m altitude. This habitat closely mirrors conditions in our cloud forest greenhouse where we maintain a minimum temperature of 12C, water well throughout the year and shade heavily in the summer.

As well as amazing flowers, the species has attractive stiff, flattened, narrow leaves and looks lovely even when not in flower.