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Pigeon orchid blooms adding fragrance to the grumpy moods
Pigeon orchids in bloom
While the economic hardships, fuel shortages and power cuts add a gloomy undertone, nature however, looks to reconcile troubled minds adding fragrance to gardens in many areas through the blooming of pigeon orchids (Dendrobium crumenatum) this week.
Resembling the shape of a pigeon, this white orchid known as ‘parevi mal’ in Sinhala blooms in numbers clustered in an inflorescence emitting a very sweet fragrance. The speciality of this orchid is that all the mature plants in an area bloom simultaneously. Pigeon orchids in Southern Sri Lanka reportedly began blooming last Thursday, March 17 and in the Central province the previous week.
“Bloom of pigeon orchid is a response to the day and night temperature fluctuation where if it is more than 10 degrees celsius it could trigger flowering,” said former director of the Botanical Gardens, Botanist Dr. Siril Wijesunadara. This can happen usually after a heavy rainfall, where many areas in Sri Lanka receive rains after a drier period recently. According to some studies, the pigeon orchid blooms after 9 days of a heavy rainfall and as all the mature orchids in an area get exposed to similar conditions, the pigeon orchids in an area bloom together, Dr. Wijesundara told The Sunday Times.
In nature, such blooming in response to the temperature variance is common. Dr. Wijesundara recall that commercial florists in Netherlands take mature orchid plants into a green house which colder temperatures to stimulate the flowering. “As Sri Lanka has different climatic zones, commercial cultivators may use this to their advantage where plants raised in dry zone can take to the hill country to stimulate this temperature fluctuations,” Dr. Wijesundara said recalling at least a few such experiments carried out in Sri Lanka. The Pigeon Orchid is an introduced exotic plant to Sri Lanka while it is native to India, Indochina, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, New Guinea, and Christmas Island. This was a very popular garden plant decades ago, but they are not that common nowadays. These orchids used to be tied to a large tree such as coconut or mango with few coconut husks and the plant just grew without any special care. But the gardens continue to shrink where space for larger trees become limited, hence the pigeon orchids too may soon become a thing of the past.
Another similar exotic orchid that was very common decades ago was Vanda Miss Joaquim orchid 9 Papilionanthe teres) also known as the Singapore orchid, because it is the national flower of Singapore. This orchid with slender stems that should be tied to posts for support has now lost its popularity in Sri Lanka.
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