Polystachia paniculata

Another pleasant under-lights surprise success. I got this flowering plant last April, and this spring it flowered on the first of two new growths to mature. The second growth is showing signs of spiking now. Neither growth is quite the size of the original, but hey, considering I never quite got around to repotting it and fed it only sporadically and my lights setup ain't exactly Waimalano, I'm fairly pleased.

Still debating what to repot it in...fine roots, top heavy, I'm tempted to put it back into sphagnum moss in a clay pot and then put the clay pot inside a plastic pot -- this system has worked well for a few other plants -- but I dunno. Fine bark mix like everything else is still most likely.

I wish more Polystachia species were easy to find. I remember seeing half a dozen different ones at Sea Breeze Orchids in the 1980s, and here and there in species specialist catalogs, but I reckon demand isn't sufficient to give growers incentive to pop seedpods or make clones. Pity. If you google the species a source of plants isn't even in the first three pages! I wish more Hawaiian growers would propagate the smaller, funkier speices. The Polys on Eric Hunt's pages are inspiring.