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#orchids

19 posts17 participants2 posts today
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Lukas VFN 🇪🇺

Three new #orchid species endemic to Costa Rica and Panama discovered phys.org/news/2025-06-orchid-s

Three #NewSpecies of Pleurothallis (Orchidaceae) from Costa Rica and Panama, with a note on asexual reproduction by prolification in Pleurothallidinae phytokeys.pensoft.net/article/

"The three new #orchids, endemic to the mountains of #CostaRica and western #Panama, are each uniquely adapted and exhibit prolifications in different ways, such as forming long chains or bushy growths."

photos of an orchid plant with large leaves and relatively small purple flowers
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mk30

I'm telling y'all, it's important to just hang out with the plants in the garden and look at them.

I was just spending time with the vanilla vine whose flowers I've been attempting to pollinate, feeling bad that the pollinations seemed to not have stuck. I was looking at the withered flowers wondering if they would fatten up or what? (because some of the flowers fell off, but some withered and stayed on the plant.) when I realized that some of the withered flowers were actually attached to green tubes! 😱

So in pic 1 below, here's what's happening:

It's an inflorescence (I think that's the word) where flowers come in one or two at a time. So the bud at the left and top have not yet opened. On the right behind my hand is a flower that I recently pollinated and that's withering. Most of the yellow-green "sticks" are places where flowers used to be, but have fallen off. Then at the bottom, you see three pods that look like fresh green beans, and I believe these are pods that have gotten pollinated and are growing! The pod in the middle still has a dried flower at the bottom.

Once I realized what I was looking at, I realized there were a bunch of other pods on the plant (see pic 2).

So I looked up when they should be harvested and it turns out they get harvested before they dry on the vine: vanillery.com/ripe-green-vanil

The pods are so sneaky! They totally look like the rest of the vine, so a dumb predator (like me) wouldn't notice they were there, allowing the pod to mature and release its thousands of tiny seeds. Such a smart plant.

So yay! If I hadn't just been spacing out, standing in the garden, looking at the plant, I might not have ever noticed 😱

#plants #gardening #nature #hawaii #vanilla #orchids @plants

A vanilla vine inflorescence showing various stages of flower production and pollination
Three unripe green vanilla pods on the vine. The pods look like green beans and look quite similar to the vine itself.
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