How to distinguish between Chunlan and Huilan

Chunlan, also known as grass orchid, mountain orchid, blossoming incense, referred to as orchid. Cymbidium is the most widely distributed orchid in China, with the most abundant resources, long cultivation history and the largest number of horticultural varieties. Its plant body is small, the leaf is thin and narrow, showing belt shape, generally about 20-35 cm long, 0.5-1 cm wide, and the leaf margin is serrated obviously. There is a globular pseudobulb, fleshy root is thin, about 0.4 cm in diameter, flowering in March-April, pedicel erect, about 6-25 cm high, double-flowering called Bandi orchid, meaning auspicious. Although the plant of Chunlan is small, the flowers are larger. The diameter of the flowers is generally 4-6 cm, and the maximum diameter can reach 8 cm. The flower color is usually green and yellowish green, with purplish red stripes or spots on the petals, as well as green and purplish red. Most of the orchids have fragrance, known as fragrance. There are many variants. Chunlan has its own characteristics due to different producing areas, which can be divided into Jiangsu and Zhejiang Chunlan, Henan Chunlan, Hubei Chunlan, Yunguichuan inland Cymbidium, Southern Chunlan and so on.

Huilan is also known as Jiuhua Orchid, Jiujie Orchid, Jiuzi Orchid. The ancients called one stem and nine flowers as Huihua, also called Cymbidium but not Huilan. Huilan pseudobulm is inconspicuous, the root is thick and long, branched. The plant of cymbidium is generally taller, the leaf is longer and wider than Chunlan, and the leaf surface is rough, the leaf length is about 35-80 cm, the leaf width is 0.5-1.5 cm, the leaf vein is thick and obvious, and the leaf margin is serrated obviously and thicker. The florescence is between April and May. Pedicel thick and long, erect, pedicel diameter thick 1 cm, thin such as line incense, tall, even leaf frame or leaf frame, generally about 35-80 cm high. There are many flowers. Flowers spread about 3.5-8 cm in diameter. The flower color is similar to the spring orchid, but the bract shell color is more than the spring orchid, the tongue petal is developed, there are green velvet fur on the tongue petal, decorated with many purple-red dots, most of them are purplish red, and there is an orchid ointment at the base of the petiolule of each flower. Cymbidium flowers are widely distributed, and also distributed to the north of Qinling Mountains. More cold-resistant, dry-resistant, Xiyang. The leaf shape and flower quality of cymbidium produced in different places are slightly different, which can be divided into Jiangsu and Zhejiang, western Anhui and Hubei, Yunguichuan inland and southern cymbidium, etc. The origin of Cymbidium is high above sea level, so it is difficult to introduce. The variability is large.