Stanhopea Season

Stanhopea embreei

Which are the best smelling orchids? Stanhopeas get my vote every time. Vanilla, chocolate, wintergreen. One of our stanhopeas, I discovered last week, has a fragrance that my nose recognizes as cinnamon.

Stanhopea tigrina

Our stanhopeas are knocking themselves out this year. If one Stanhopea plant smells like vanilla cream icing, imagine a half dozen flowering simultaneously. Some afternoons the Orchid Display House smells like a bakery. (Until you get to the bulbophyllums, that is).

Stanhopea tigrina (above) has a fragrance that is 90% phenyl ethyl acetate, a not uncommon floral constituent described as very sweet, rosy, fruity and honey-like. You can actually buy it online. However, the fragrance of Stanhopea tigrina is complex and is dominated by other compounds, like raspberry ketone and vanilline and courmarine, giving it a sweet-spicy scent unique among orchids. Stanhopea tigrina grows on the Atlantic side of Mexico.

Stanhopea tricornis

Stanhopea tigrina is known as El Toro in Latin America on account of the horns projecting from either side of the lip. In fact, most of the 55 or so species of Stanhopea have horns. The horns guide the pollinator, a fragrance-collecting male Euglossine bee, toward the pollinia located at the end of the downward arching column. Stanhopea tricornis  is one of a handful of stanhopeas without horns on the lip.

Tropical Blueberries II

Ceratostema silvicola in bud & flower

Two more delectable tropical blueberry species are flowering this week in the Tropical High Elevation House. The flowers look good enough to eat.

Cavendishia micayensis 
Notice the ivory/green tubular flowers among the pink bracts

Last week I wrote about the antioxidant properties of these tropical relatives of our native blueberries. But did I mention how gorgeous they are?

Their culture is similar to that of the the Vireya Rhododendrons, another group of tropical ericaceous shrubs. They need some sun, temperatures above 48º, acidic peaty substrate. Many of them are epiphytes and therefore want some additional perlite and/or fine fir bark added to their mix. The biggest challenge in growing them? Size. The flowers pictured above are produced on branches about 6' in length.

Tropical blueberries are fairly uncommon in cultivation. The New York Botanical Garden has an excellent research collection. Our Tropical High Elevation House is a great place to see them.

Extreme Superfruits

Whether you realize it or not, you are already familiar with this group of plants.

Macleania pentaptera in flower

These are blueberries. They belong to the same family (Ericaceae) that includes Rhododendrons, azaleas, heathers, mountain laurel, Pieris, and edible crops like cranberry, lignonberry, bilberry and, of course, the temperate zone blueberries that you put on your morning cereal.

Anthopteris wardii with flowers and fruits

The blueberries pictured above grow in the tropics of Central and South America. Their vivid flowers are the precursors of large fleshy berries, usually white or purple. Beautiful, yes. Great tasting? Well...I would describe them as faintly sweet, but without a distinctive flavor. I won't be making a pie out of them.

But wait. In July of this year researchers at Lehman College and the New York Botanical Garden announced that tropical blueberries have two to four times more antioxidants than U.S. blueberries. Consumption of antioxidants is associated with a low incidence of some chronic diseases and may help protect against heart disease and cancer.

Anthopteris wardii, pictured above, along with Cavendishia grandifolia, are the two species that the researchers found to have the highest amounts of antioxidants.

"We consider these two species of neotropical blueberries to be extreme superfruits with great potential to benefit human health," said Dr. Edward Kennelly of Lehman College in a statement.

You can see Anthopteris wardii, Cavendishia grandifolia and a dozen or so other neotropical blueberries in our Tropical High Elevation House.