Until recently I hadn't realized my ignorance with regard to these plants. Though Spathoglottis plicata is the commonest species, the range of colors and flower variations available suggest to me that there has been hybridization going on. The typical plants that you encounter in non-specialized retail tend to be, and I say this without contempt, a generic pink/magenta/purple. 'They're beautiful and I planted one here three years ago. The problem is that they are terrestrials (versus epiphytes) and require a bit, actually, a lot more moisture than we have available here sans watering. It languished for two years then failed to reappear at all. The color of this plant (8$ from Home Depot) was so intriguing I'll take it home and treat at as a regular tropical orchid.
Sunday, July 26, 2009
Spathoglottis cv.....Philippine Ground Orchid
Until recently I hadn't realized my ignorance with regard to these plants. Though Spathoglottis plicata is the commonest species, the range of colors and flower variations available suggest to me that there has been hybridization going on. The typical plants that you encounter in non-specialized retail tend to be, and I say this without contempt, a generic pink/magenta/purple. 'They're beautiful and I planted one here three years ago. The problem is that they are terrestrials (versus epiphytes) and require a bit, actually, a lot more moisture than we have available here sans watering. It languished for two years then failed to reappear at all. The color of this plant (8$ from Home Depot) was so intriguing I'll take it home and treat at as a regular tropical orchid.
Florida: I love it but I wonder sometimes.....yet I rhapsodize
I find it helps me to get my mind around this state by picturing it's economy in biological/thermodynamic terms. By my reckoning, Florida has three major populations: tourists and retired folks, who form a resource base for opportunistic entrepreneurs, the last group, to exploit. The money is the base of a food chain and things operate from there.
To be fair, everyones not a pirate. I know there is a large percentage of the population that just lives their lives like people do everywhere: they deliver mail, or teach, or drive trucks. They're administrators, public servants, police, technicians, doctors and so on. Still.....the food chain starts with the tourists and the retirees, and there are a lot of souvenir shops, RV dealerships, and generally sleazy retail operations. One enterprising exterminator has devised a program to eliminate "orange rats". For a reasonable fee. Commendably preemptive since there seems, at this time, to be no such thing as orange rats.
I guess technically I'm neither a tourist nor a retiree. I act like a tourist but I'm living in my own house so. ..I'm not retired but our house is in a retirement community...I don't know. I do know I love the Natural Areas of the state: coral reefs, the pelagic ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, my own Florida Scrub with it's Gopher Tortoises and endemic vegetation. Sandhill Cranes walk down the street in front of our house. In the spring, migrating warblers flit about in the Spanish Moss draped Live Oaks in the front yard. Herons, egrets, eagles abound among a tremendous diversety of bird life. It rained this afternoon bringing the treefrogs to life in the rain gutters around the screen porch. Their sharp barking calls punctuated the sound of steady rain on a metal roof.
To be fair, everyones not a pirate. I know there is a large percentage of the population that just lives their lives like people do everywhere: they deliver mail, or teach, or drive trucks. They're administrators, public servants, police, technicians, doctors and so on. Still.....the food chain starts with the tourists and the retirees, and there are a lot of souvenir shops, RV dealerships, and generally sleazy retail operations. One enterprising exterminator has devised a program to eliminate "orange rats". For a reasonable fee. Commendably preemptive since there seems, at this time, to be no such thing as orange rats.
I guess technically I'm neither a tourist nor a retiree. I act like a tourist but I'm living in my own house so. ..I'm not retired but our house is in a retirement community...I don't know. I do know I love the Natural Areas of the state: coral reefs, the pelagic ecosystems of the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic, my own Florida Scrub with it's Gopher Tortoises and endemic vegetation. Sandhill Cranes walk down the street in front of our house. In the spring, migrating warblers flit about in the Spanish Moss draped Live Oaks in the front yard. Herons, egrets, eagles abound among a tremendous diversety of bird life. It rained this afternoon bringing the treefrogs to life in the rain gutters around the screen porch. Their sharp barking calls punctuated the sound of steady rain on a metal roof.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)