Cymbidium wenshanense

Cymbidium wenshanense is a small growing Cymbidium with very large beautiful flowers. 

Cymbidium wenshanense is a rare plant in the wild and was first described in 1990 from plants foung in Yunnan (Southern China) but the original population was collected to extinction. It has since been found again in Southern China and northern Vietnam where it grows from 1000 to 1500m as an epiphyte in seasonally dry woodland. We have exploired similar habitat in neighbouring Laos where the mountains experience warm wet summers and rather cool dryer winters.

We grow Cymbidium wenshanense in our Himalayan greenhouse (minimum 7C) although it hapily grows warmer. It is a beautiful species even when not in flower with very graceful thin leaves only reaching about 60cm.  We find that seedlings grow quickly and make multiple growths.

The photographs show the parent plant that we have raised seed from. The seed is quite large for orchid seed being slightly longer than 1mm (see our microscope photo with 1mm scale). As with all orchid seed, the seed has an embryo just visible inside the dry seed coat. There is no nutrient for the embryo which is why we need a propagation laboratory to raise seed aseptically on a growing media (in the wild the seed relies on a mycorrhizal fungus to germinate)