breaking the trend...just to share this giant, Phalaenopsis gigantea

bought this plant about three years back, came with two leaves about three inches plus to four. went through some minor and major hiccups including a crown rot. it survived the ordeal and throw out a basal keiki, and not long after that the keiki started to flower. the largest leave span i had is ten inches plus but the leave span from this keiki is now only about nine inches plus. still has a lot more to grow!

16/10/2013 - the gigantea pods

Catasetum Broga Black Leopard (Catasetum Penang x Catasetum callosum)

bought this plant some time ago but my mistake was to divide it prematurely, back then the bulb was barely 2 inches. since then, it did not flower and only do so when it produces the third growth.
a wonderful variety, much darker colors of the petal and sepals compare to other siblings that i came across in the internet.

 first pic below, appearance of the entire plant and spike

from side view of the spike

close up of the flower

display of the spike

catasetum incurvum, female...well, sort of

this is actually a hermaphrodite, physically all female except the coloration. but it is my first "female" incurvum. the hood is tall, as you can see it from the lateral view 

the white netting behind is wrapping a third female flower which will later be use for pollination

the pics below are the male flowers, blooming approximately a week after the female on distal of the inflorescence

the two final pics below showing the formation of selfed seedpods from the plant above and also the formation of a mixed spike again by another incurvum plant

catasetum saccatum, second plant

this one came in as a mislabeled id plant, and therefore i have two different saccatum now. the seplas and petals are slightly darker to the one i first had,

the dorsal petals sometimes can be fused with the dorsal sepal as in the above pic or sometimes they will 'open' up

hermaphrodites, catasetum atratum x catasetum purum

the first two pic here is the male flower, shown before in the previous post of atratum x purum

below is the pic of the hermaphrodite on the right of the picture and the male on the left. the male flower has a folded shape as though it is embracing the beak anther and the hermaphrodite has all the sepals and petals spread out. with close scrutiny, one will also notice the pair long long isoceras trigger that curls up on the inner labellum is not present in the hermaphrodite replace by a short fang like trigger

individual closeup of the hermaphordite

a cross section of the hermaphorite, here broad peduncles is partially sectioned as well, the red arrow is pointing towards the receptive stigmatic cavitiy.

last pic, just to show the appearance of the spike, the left spike is the one with mixed hermaphrodite flowers, not only the flower are affected, initially this particular spike is more erected and had a larger peduncle diameter compare to the the other male spike indicating a female spike is forming. but the formation of the female characteristic started to end when the change of the weather here from sunny to cloudy and rainy weathers. the spike eventually arches down with formation of mixed male and hermaphrodite on the spike, however no female flowers were form. though it would be cool to have all three in a single stalk.

catasetum viridiflavum

the plant's name is derived from the word viridis (green) and flavus (yellow), referring to the color of the flower itself. this plant is easily identified by the large globoid lip, with a small conical cap on top in its non resupinated form. the flower size is relatively large.
this plant may look similar to catasetum integerrimum and catasetum maculatum for an untrained eyes.

first picture below, slightly oblique frontal view, the opening of the labellum is almost round with a notch at the dorsal part

this spike had only two flowers, the characteristic of this plant is the blooms occupies only at the terminal of the inflorescence

last picture below, from the lateral view showing the globous appearance of the hood with a small pointed conical cap on the top

frontal view of the flower with the beak anther and the pollina removed

final pic here, structure of the internal labellum, something you don't often find in the internet. the wavy calluses structure, located just behind the opening of the hood

clowesetum Loppe Farlansiae

this is a hybrid between clowesetum Black Jade and catasetum barbatum . most of the Loppe Farlansiae has some red specks on the labellum but this one is totally green and white.
first pic below is actually a closeup of the column showing the appearance of the trigger pollina like structure but however this trigger is non functional as in the catasetums. just curious if a cross with a catasetum again would produce one with a functional trigger.

closeup on the flower, still very clowesia-like flowers. borders are heavily fimbriated

appearance of the spike, eight flowers, could not have ask for more as it is a first growth from a barebulb