It's described as a grass orchid or a marsh orchid, is probably
terrestrial since there are never any aerial roots. The leaves are
grassy. There seem to be one to several blossoms per bud stalk, with
the stalks having some kind of nodes on them and the blossoms hanging
from a short stem from these stalks. The flower has something that the
book refers to as stamens, but which are probably some kind of hair-like
things. Its center is drawn as a petal with a curved line coming from
one end and going perhaps 2/3 of the way to the other end.
The closest thing I've found is a calopogon of some sort, but they don't
appear to come from china. Pleiones and cymbidiums come from china but
they don't seem to fit the description.
Any ideas?
Janet Price
jkp...@amherst.edu
You might try looking at the Chinese ground orchid (Bletilla sp.), such as
B. striata. The vegetative growth on Bletilla looks alot like grass.
You might visit http://www.thimblefarms.com/ , as they carry it, and their
site has some information about it. But just doing a google search on
either bletilla or "chinese ground orchid" will get you lots of information.
Cheers,
Ted
http://www.firstrays.com/photos_C.htm
--
Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!
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"Janet Price" <jkp...@amherst.edu> wrote in message
news:3FABE511...@amherst.edu...
Could the orchids be Chinese cymbidiums? These are the only orchids I
can momentarily think of that have grassy leaves and are valued for
their leaves as well as their flowers when it comes to judging.
What is the name of your book?
. . . Pam
Everything Orchid Management System
http://www.pe.net/~profpam/page3.html
----------------------------------------------------
They are Cymbidiums.
I don't have my books on Chinese brush painting here with me (I like
the paintings, but I have no artistic skills), but the ones that I
have also give an indication on the time of flowering AND based on
that we would be talking about Cymbidium goeringii when they say
winter/spring and Cymbidium ensifolium when they talk about summer.
In my book Cym. goeringii is described, if memory serves me correct,
I feel Cymbidium kanran & sinense are too "large" when compared to the
brush paintings that I have seen and bought when in China.
Of course "our" latin names don't hold up much in China they al refer
to them as "lan hua", so actually you should be looking at what is
refered to as:
Section Lan (1 or rarely 2 flowers per inflorescence and more
fragrant):
Cymb. goeringii
Section Hui (5-7 flowers but less fragrant), and within this section
the small flowered ones and among those I think this should be an
almost complete list:
Cymb. lianpan, longibracteatum, ensifolium, nanulum, cyperifolium
kind regards,
Kenneth Bruyninckx
Akerne Orchids, Belgium
On Fri, 07 Nov 2003 13:31:45 -0500, Janet Price <jkp...@amherst.edu>
wrote:
Take a look at -The Mustard Seed Garden Manual of Painting-- for how the Chinese
dealt with orchids. Usually the plants were cymbidiums, but any orchid could
be used.
The MSGMP has wonderful illustrations, but I've been told that the English
text is a poor translation of the Chinese original.
J. Del Col
Thanks everyone for all your help.
Janet
--
Janet Price
Curricular Computing Specialist
jkp...@amherst.edu
x5141
Don't have my books on the subject at hand right now, but maybe you
should have a look at Prof. I-Hsiung Ju's site (
http://www.ihsiungju.addr.com/index.html ), I bought his book recently
and to me it seems good.
That is where I got my idea of the grass orchid being Cymb. goeringii
and the marsh orchid being more something like Cymb. ensifolium
(because of indication of flowering period and some explanations of
the leaves).
I have also seen a reference in there to the "heart" of the orchid,
although I do not remember anymore what they meant by that :-)
But, your description of "hair-like things" puzzles me... where are
they located ? At the base of the plant, on the flower stalk ?
kind regards,
Kenneth.
On Thu, 13 Nov 2003 15:22:51 -0500, Janet Price <jkp...@amherst.edu>
wrote:
>This is the book my instructor showed us, and I've read elsewhere that
--
Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!
. . . . . . . . . . .
"Kenneth Bruyninckx" <ken...@akerne-orchids.com> wrote in message
news:e56c6e2905525bf4...@news.teranews.com...
>Sometimes old leaves do leave a fibrous remnant at the point of
>removal...could they the be hair-like things?
Could well be, I have never looked at my scrolls that close lately but
I cannot remember that "feature" in the paintings I bought.
Anyway, just found "The book of Orchid" by I-Hsiung Ju agian, it was
actually lying close to me in a huge pile of other orchidbooks.
In there I-Hsiung Ju mentions 3 types of orchids:
- Ts'ao-Lan (spring orchid) -> strongest fragrance, only 1 or 2
flowers, Cymb. goeringii for sure !
- Huei-Lan (marsh orchid) ->long leaves, many flowers, fragrance of
the spring and flowers in the sun are like a white jade pagoda...hmmm
a white Cymb. ensifolium ?
- Min-Lan (Fukien orchid) -> leaves broad and supple coming from
Fukien (Fujian) province, and if course there are several species of
Cymbidium growing in that province :-)
Btw, the heart is the stamen of the flower and placed most often at
the bottom of the flower.
kind regards,
Kenneth.
Thanks again for your info. I'd sort of concluded that the "heart" was
somehow the column and lip combination. The other feature, that was
described to me as stamens, shows up as darker smudges just to the side
of the center.
Janet Price