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These orchid-like white blooms showed up in a dark part of my hexagonal imitator vivarium, growing at the very bottom of the pressed cocos fiber boards among the Hedera helix (duck foot ivy) There is a cluster of these flowers only, no leaves, coming up individually from the cocos substrate. They are very watery and fragile, each bloom lasting only a day. The blooms measure about 1 1/4 inch long, and have three of the narrow, sharp calyx type petals on each. I have gone through all of the parasitic/saphrophytic plant sites I can find, some with a lot of photos of many species, but still can't come up with an identity of any sort. The tank is about 5 years old, and has also sprouted various odd mushrooms, 2 different smallish ferns and other oddities at various times, none of which I've planted.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

May I ask what type of lighting you have over this set up? You know you're doing something right when flowers bloom in your vivarium! I thought this could only happen, with most species, under metal halides or vapor lamps, rarely under just flourescents.
Beautiful pics by the way, both here and in the thread below of your frogs!

The weird thing is that these flowers cropped up near the darkest corner of a 30 gallon hexagonal tall tank with only two small 15W. fluorescent bulbs over the top. They are totally unassociated with any green leaves of their own, and have no green stems. The flower stalks look more like an extention of the floral tubing, and they are very fragile and watery, no green substance to them. They are more like what you see with some of the parasitic plants like Orobanche or Monotropha that don't rely on photosynthesis at all. I have some people helping me with identification, and have preserved a few blooms by pressing and preserving in borax. They actually seem to be coming out of the pressed cocos fiber on the lower background. The surrounding plants that you can see are one of the varieties of Ficus pumila and some cut off stems of a Calthea. I think I identified the green leaves of the ficus as a Hedera helix,var. duck foot, because that's the name it was given when I received it many years ago. Since then however, it appears to be one of the creeping ficus. The flowers are definitely not a Calthea bloom, nor from the ficus. So to date, it remains an exciting mystery, and reafirms my conviction that one should never try to sterilze a substrate. The tank has been cycling biologically for about 6 years without a major take-down, so whatever it is, took it 6 years to appear. In the meantime, there have been many interesting mushrooms that have come and gone, a couple of ferns cropped up on the cocos panels that I never planted, and the original Dendrobates imitator frogs are still living and occasionally breeding in it.

The photos are of the tank when it was first being set up, and of some of the frogs that were active in the bromes and doing their fighting during the first year or so. The tank is now very changed and rather overgrown by comparison.

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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus

i have broms that also flower occasionally. i have 3-4 different kinds of broms but only the hybrid does it. most were purchased from custom ecos online. they have a sigle white colored stalk growing from the center of the brom with a single small light powder blue flower at the end. i also notice the leaves of the brom turn from a solid green to red towards the base where they meet the main part of the plant.

it seems i can induse this by changing from my high 5500K lighting to 4000K or 4500K for awhile. i have the ah supply conversion lighting kit for a 10 gal hood. this hybrid brom also sprouts more pups than any other broms i have.

I haven't had too much experience with them, but the flowers resemble some sort of Utricularia. Let me know if you find out what type they are! I might have to try to find some myself!

I thought that myself, but couldn't find a match in any reference I could find. They are gone completely now, with no sign of anything else. I have also thought that the nearby Calathea may be the source, although the blooms did not come as they are supposed to, from the plant itself, but well above it out of the cocos panels. The blooms themselves do superficially resemble those of a Calathea, but the flower stems and everything else about it are just all wrong. I guess I'll just have to wait and see what else happens.
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Patty
Pahsimeroi, Idaho

4 D. auratus blue
5 D. galactonotus pumpkin orange splash back
5 D. imitator
6 D. leucomelas
4 D. pumilio Bastimentos
4 D. fantasticus
4 P. terribilis
4 D. reticulatus
4 D. castaneoticus
2 D. azureus
4 P vittatus