Podangis dactylocerus

We have seen some wonderful miniature orchids in our visits to tropical forests in Rwanda and south Africa and although less commonly grown than orchids of Asia or the Americas we would not be without our African beauties.

Podangis dactylocras, a small fan shaped species widespread across tropical Africa from Angola in the south to Sierra Leone in the West and Tanzania in the East.

The moth pollinated flowers are white (a common character in African orchids) and produced on short spikes from the axils of the pointed leaves. Flowers are 6mm across and have a 1cm spur with an unusual flattened tip that reminds us of a fish’s tail.

As you can see we grow our Podangis plants indoors in one of our IKEA display cabinets with supplementary lighting and a minimum of 17C in the winter. Of course it is much warmer than that indoors in the summer. We water by spraying the compost every two or three days but making sure plants never sit in water.