Mediocalcar decoratum

The delicate little flowers of Mediocalcar decoratum are very unlike any other species we grow (apart from the closely related Mediocalcar biflorum) and it is always lovely when the little orange buds burst each spring.

The species comes from Papua New Guinea where it grows in shady forest up to 2500m. Mediocalcar decoratum’s small bell shaped flowers in orange and yellow suggest that it is probably pollinated by Sun Birds. Sun Bird’s are Africa and Asia’s version of South America’s Humming Birds and we have seen some lovely species in Rwanda.

Although this is a cool growing Asian species its habitat in the mountains of Papua New Guinea is very similar to the cloud forests of the Americas and so we grow plants in our Cloud Forest Greenhouse alongside masdevallias.

We grow all our plants of Mediocalcar decoratum mounted which suits their habit and plants flourish as long as they are protected from strong sun in the summer which can dry plants too much, and watered well throughout the year. The moss you can see on the cork mount has developed naturally, we never use moss when we mount plants (see here for more detail on mounting orchids)