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Project Noah Nature School
Bletilla striata is the most common form found in the nursery trade and is often labeled simply as 'Hardy Orchid' or 'Chinese Ground Orchid' and is quite inexpensive. This beautiful and hardy deciduous orchid has the distinction of being one of the first orchids in cultivation in England dating from around 1794. The very flat knob-like tuberous root system is typically sympodial, expansive and each shoot is of annual duration only. On established plants, almost every new growth shoot has a flower spike before leaves fully develop. Each shoot can have up to fourteen beautiful rose-mauve flowers with a ruffled lip about 30mm diameter, scentless and looking something like a miniature Cattleya orchid flower. An established clump can have literally dozens of flower spikes flowering in the late Spring and the clumps only increase in beauty with time. They rarely exceed two feet in height. Wikipedia
Urban house front yard landscaping.
Thank you for the ID Craig. It may be frost damage, although we have had some unseasonably warm days here in the Bay Area, the nights still get cold.
Boy oh boy do these flower early in California! I saw them flowering in their native Japan in late April and in the UK it's even later than that. These do look rather raggedy though. Maybe touched by a late frost?
Spotted on Mar 2, 2012
Submitted on Mar 3, 2012
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