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In general Stenoglottis have done well with me and I have wanted to try Stenoglottis woodii for a long time, since seeing it growing prolifically at Kew.
Unfortunately it is not easily available and it has a reputation for neediing more warmth than the other species. In late 2020 I was sent a plant by a friend. Unfortunatley it got a bit mangled in the post and I unpacked a mess of broken pieces. I planted the peices with hope, and a shoot started to grow the following year, but it came to nothing and the plant did not appear the following year. I don't know if it was too tender or too damaged to survive. Plantzafrica says: "Like a number of ground orchids, this plant has succulent or tuberous roots and a basal rosette of unmarked, dull green leaves. The slender flower spike arises from the centre of the rosette and is between 150 and 250 mm tall and bears 10 to 40 small white or pale pink flowers in mid-summer. S. woodii is found near the coast in a small area of southern KwaZulu-Natal and adjacent parts of Pondoland on moist sandstone ledges where leaf mould has accumulated. The genus as a whole is only found in the southeastern parts of the African continent. Due to the rarity of this plant, not much is known about what pollinates it although it's pale-coloured flowers would seem to indicate pollination is by a small moth." |
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| 12th December 2020 | ||
