Two Phalaenopsis species from section Zebrinae

Two species that have been found on Borneo from section Zebrinae are Phalaenopsis corningiana and Phalaenopsis sumatrana. Of the two, Phalaenopsis corningiana is endemic to Borneo, and has one of the coolest scent that smells like grape soda with hints of cloves, which is quite unique.

This is the second bloom for this Phalaenopsis corningiana, but I have yet to figure out how to grow this species well without stressing it out too much.

The sister species, Phalaenopsis sumatrana, is really quite different. This plant had previously bloomed but it's the first time it has bloomed here. Unlike Phalaenopsis corningiana, Phalaenopsis sumatrana produces an acrid, turpentine-y, burnt-plastic scent. Because the number of bloom it carried produced massive amounts of scents, it became quite uncomfortable to even stay in the room it was blooming in (!), which unfortunately meant I had to prematurely cut the flowers after a few days. These will definitely have to be grown in a separate room in the future.

First bloom: Phalaenopsis corningiana ('Fernbrook' AM/AOS x 'Dowery')

Phalaenopsis corningiana is perhaps, on the top of my list of species from the genus Phalaenopsis for two main reasons: (1) it is endemic to Borneo - found only in state of Sarawak and (2) it has a sweet, grape-like fragrance that rivals that of Phalaenopsis bellina. As the narrow habitat for this species is getting destroyed in Sarawak, we may not have any wild groves remaining, so like many Phalaenopsis species, its preservation is dependent on collections around the world. Relatively unknown in Borneo, it also means that it is more difficult for this species to remain conserved ex situ in the home garden of orchid hobbyists on the island who mainly collect wild-collected specimens.

Because it tends to be a little more difficult and quite slow growing, Phal. corningiana is not as popular as Phal. bellina in cultivation but a few vendors have recently had these for sale here. These line-bred lines differ quite significantly from wild plants in terms of the intensity and density of the red pigmentation on the flowers.

Phalaenopsis corningiana ('Fernbrook' AM/AOS x 'Dowery')

Phalaenopsis corningiana and grow area update

My Phal. corningiana had seven buds on four spikes and had just finished flowering. However, I made the mistake of changing the growing conditions drastically (see below) after the buds had developed so it got shocked I think and subsequently had a hard time opening its flowers. Here's a shot of one of the blooms. There's an imperfection on the lower sepals because I had sprayed Physan the day before to control some fungus issues on my Phal. mariae that was next to it. Will try to flower this plant again next year to see if the severe cupping is a characteristic of this individual, or if it was just my rookie mistake. 

I recently 'upgraded' my grow lights to a six-tube 4' T5 HO fixture, and realized pretty fast that this was probably an overkill for my current conditions in the small space. However, it is still better than my small four-tube 2' T5 HO fixture, so it is here to stay. This new fixture can probably light up an entire growth room in terms of Phalaenopsis light requirements. Using an estimate for light intensity by an iPhone app, I'm currently only running two tubes on this fixture for 1000-1500 foot candles. I had used four out of the six tubes for a month prior to this and most plants were getting a little stressed out because it was at about 2000-2500 foot candles. Here's a look at the current situation and it appears I might have a little more room to expand the collection!

Primary hybrids of Phalaenopsis corningiana

Right now, I'm on corningiana primary hybrid kick. I have obtained three of these so far. There's something about the color and fragrance that these hybrids can potentially produce that draws me to them, I suppose. In two of these primaries, venosa and lueddemanniana are not Borneo phals per-se but they are 50% corningiana and are hence blogged because of this parentage.

1. Phal. Dragon's Fire (Phal. corningiana x Phal. venosa)
2. Phal. Corning-Cervi (Phal. corningiana x Phal. cornu-cervi)
3. Phal. Chienlung Luedgiana (Phal. corningiana x Phal. lueddemanniana)

It's surprising how dominant Phal. corningiana is in most of these crosses and I'm looking forward to flowering out these guys out to see if this holds true. Among the three, I'm most interested to see how my Corning-Cervi turns out. In the meantime, they need to keep putting on weight!

The Chienlung Luedgiana came in bud and opened its first flower this weekend. So far, I don't smell anything yet, but I'll update if this turns out to be fragrant.

*Update: The bloom is fragrant! I smell mostly a lily-like scent with cinnamon and a very slight hint of the grape flavor that I really like from corningiana.. I'm not a fan of the lily smell unfortunately :/

The second bud on the Phal. Chienlung Luedgiana opened this week. The fragrance is more perceptible in the morning and is more grape-flavored than a week ago.

Phalaenopsis corningiana

I was lucky enough to snag a corningiana recently. According to Peter Lin of Big Leaf Orchids from whom I purchased the plant, this is a line bred sib-cross from Chien Lung Liu. Disclaimer: I got this as a flowering plant (with three spikes!) but because I think it is a recent import, I could tell that it was just repotted in sphagnum and is not established at all. Nonetheless, the flowers have great color with strong markings. So far, they have yet to put out any detectable fragrance... (*Update 1800hr: it smells amazing, and could only be described like so: Holy-mother-of grape soda candy bubblegum!!)

As with the other phals, I'm focusing on vegetative growth so this plant is in a 'spa' bag of its own. However, I do get the pleasure of updating my species list!

Borneo Phalaenopsis species list 002

Phalaenopsis amabilis
Phalaenopsis appendiculata
Phalaenopsis bellina
Phalaenopsis borneensis
Phalaenopsis cochlearis
Phalaenopsis corningiana
Phalaenopsis cornu-cervi
Phalaenopsis deliciosa
Phalaenopsis doweryensis
Phalaenopsis fimbriata
Phalaenopsis fuscata
Phalaenopsis gigantea
Phalaenopsis lamelligera
Phalaenopsis maculata
Phalaenopsis mariae
Phalaenopsis modesta
Phalaenopsis pantherina
Phalaenopsis sumatrana

*The species highlighted green are the ones I currently have.