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Do you guys have any favorite ochids I dont know what kind to get or what they look like when they flower. Should I just go by price?

Hi,

I currently keep a few orchids in my tanks. My favorite is in my amazonicus tank is is a plero. anthrax (from Jon Werner.) All of the mini orchids listed on the black jungle site are nice as well. Most orchids need a little more ventilation that you can provide in a frog tank, so do not waste a lot of money buying . This is really Jon Werners topic so I will leave the rest to him.

Alexander Stubbs

I like Encyclia cochleata. Mine has been in my tank since I set it up a few years ago and in that time has quadrupled in size, flowering about 4 months out of the year. It has wierd flowers. The lip is shell shaped and extends upwards while the petals and sepals are twisted and reflexed downward. Besure to buy a small one if you go with it and try and buy from small parent plants, as the species is quite plastic.
It ranges from southern Florida through the Carribean, Central America and the a few northern areas of South America.

Bulbophyllum lepidum has also worked well for me. It is a small fly-pollinated species from Southeast Asia.

I have also had luck with Gongora spp. (I don't know which one) and Stanhopea oculata. They are a little large for the average setup, but if you have the space they are worth it. The flowers of both are hummingbird like, for lack of a better discription, and scented with ciniminole as the two are euglossine (spelling) bee pollinated in the wild. My Gongora blooms about 10 months out of the year. As soon as one inflourescences fades another is on the way. Since the Gongora is the larger of the two I have it planted near the bottom of the tank. The inflourescences starts at the base of the psuedobulbs and is meant to hang beneath the plant but can be easily guided upwards. It usually about 30in long so it goes to the top of the tank and back down before the flowers open, this makes for quite a showing.

As for the Stanhopea it has to be planted with a sizeable space under the plant, because its flowers are produced from underneath the psuedobulbs and have to hang down. These plants are generally grown in wooden baskets and the flowers come out the bottom of the baskets.

Hi,
Interesting choices, you must have a good sized viv. Stanhopea and Gongora are good choices(for large viv's) though since they are intermediate to warm growers, like medium to higher light and flower a few to many times/year. Gongora is a particularly interesting spp. that is polinated through mimicry. The pollinator is usually enticed to the flower by fragrance. If the wasp is male he will attempt to either mate with the flower thinking it is a female wasp or attacks it if he thinks it is another male. I'm not sure what role the female wasps play except to be around when all this is happening.
Gongora tricolor is one spp. that I would avoid as it's inflorescens hang 2-4 ftbelow the plant. All of the other Gongora spp. have much shorter flower spikes and range from from 1-2 feet.
With any orchid, good air movement is essential. Do you have fans in your viv?

Tim

A small correction Tim; it is a bee that severs as a pollinator for both genera, not a wasp. You have the general mode of pollination right though.

n/p

Actually, Gongora are pollinated by male Euglossine bees...they gather a number of scents from flowers, dirt, bark, even dung to mix a "perfume" that they use to attract females of the species...the male who mixes the best "perfume" is the one who gets the girl.

Gongora, Stanhopea, Peristeria, Catasetum, Mormodes, and Cycnoches are all genera that are largely euglossine-pollinated orchids with strong fragrances.

---Prem