Bamboo Orchid, Arundina graminifolia
What you see on the left are a stand of what we call soil orchids, some of which have been beaten to the ground by heavy rains, and on the right a stand of robust Curcuma (locally, resurrection plant) leaves. The orchids have been straining toward the light for some time – we had no idea the Curcuma would cast so much shade when we planted it there – and the rains just helped them plunge on down to the ground.
The orchid stems can grow to 3 meters tall, and the flowers are at the very top, so their gradual leaning over the past week or so gave me the chance to take some images of the lovely flowers.
Panama is home to no doubt hundreds of species of native orchids, and Potrerillos has a particularly fine climate for them, but the first orchid I decide to write about, this one, was introduced from Asia! My excuse is that this orchid is highly conspicuous, being very popular as a cultivated plant. It’s been introduced to Puerto Rico, Costa Rica, Guatemala, and Panama, according to wikipedia, for this purpose. I had to wonder what the chances were that it would become an invasive plant.
If you don’t live in our neighborhood, and you’ve seen these orchids, you may very well know them as “bamboo orchids.” They are reminiscent of bamboo, with their reedy stems, formation of large clumps, and fairly tall size. Their scientific name is Arundina gramnifolia.
- Arundina comes from the Latin arundo, meaning reed,
- and gramnifolia means grass-like leaves (botanary).
So let’s take a closer look at these reedy stems and grass-like leaves. Read more »
