The Monkey King of the Orchid World-- Monkey face Xiao Longlan

The "Monkey King" of the Orchid World-- Monkey face Xiao Longlan

In the mountain rainforests of the American tropics, the dark, humid environment and unique geographical structure give birth to many strange flowers and plants. This includes a very strange kind of orchid "monkey-faced dragon orchid".

Monkey face Little Dragon Orchid looks like a monkey face when it blossoms. The outermost three sepals of the flower form the outline of the "monkey face" like petals, two lateral petals point out the clever "eyes", the "monkey nose" is composed of the core column unique to the orchid, and the lifelike "monkey mouth" is made up of varied lips. The plant is small, usually grows on forks with branches, rotten leaves or moss and other sundries, and is so secret that it is difficult to find.

In 1978, botanist Carlyle Luer discovered the monkey-faced dragon orchid in Ecuador, together with similar species discovered before and later. At present, there are about 120 species and natural hybrids in the monkey-faced small dragon orchid family, most of which are distributed in Ecuador, and a small number of species are distributed in Colombia, Peru, Costa Rica, Panama and other countries. There are all kinds of differences among these species in flower color, especially in the shape and structure of lip. It is a pure coincidence that their flowers hit Sun WuKong in the face, and every year a new species of monkey-faced dragon orchid is discovered. In recent years, new species have been found in Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Panama and Peru.

Monkey face small dragon orchid (Dracula) is a perennial epiphytic herb of Orchidaceae, with a height of 30cm and 40cm, a single stem and single leaf erect, with short stolons, but no pseudobulbs. Leaves banded or elliptic, thin, 25 cm long. Single flower or raceme, inserted at base of stem, 18-20 cm long, flowers drooping, with one or more flowers, large, 10-30 cm in vertical diameter. The sepals are the most prominent part of the flower, the middle sepals are erect, the bases of the sepals on both sides are flattened or cup-shaped in varying degrees, the ends of the three sepals contract and extend evenly in the shape of a fine tail, and the tail is up to 20 cm long. Sepals are often hairy. The two petals are short and thick, smaller, each with a verrucous protuberance on both sides of the core column above the lips, just like two eyes. Lips with dilated folds or ridges. Rich in colors, there are white, red, orange-red, purple, yellow and so on, mostly complex colors. Flowering spring, summer, or autumn, winter, and there are different species have flowering in the four seasons, and its smell is similar to that of mature oranges or mushrooms.

The plant grows between 1500m and 2300m above sea level, with some species living in habitats less than 300m, but also more than 2300 m. All wild species grow in the shade of trees with little sunlight. They usually grow between branches with a layer of litter and moss. Because of the influence of moss and litter, the roots of the plant remain moist (but not too moist because the layer is ventilated). At the same time, the air humidity in this area is very high, which is very beneficial to the growth and reproduction of monkey-faced dragon orchid.

Monkey face small dragon orchid is more popular in western countries, it is easy to cultivate, can refer to the cultivation method of Phalaenopsis. As the mullion grows from the stem base, in order to facilitate the extension of the mullion, cultivation should use hanging basket or net basket, with bark block, moss, charcoal, fern root and so on as the matrix. Attention should be paid to:

It grows well in a moist, shaded, ventilated and cool environment. Leaf yellowing and even death will occur when the temperature is higher than 28 ℃. In most parts of China, whether in outdoor gardens, balconies, roofs or windows, attention should be paid to cooling in summer, while ensuring good ventilation and proper humidity. Use a shading net to control the light when the summer is too hot, or put it in an indoor cooling place to cool down. When the new bud is close to maturity, we should let it see more sunlight, appropriately reduce watering, but not dry, so that it is easy to make the new plant produce buds, and then lower the temperature to promote flowering.

Monkey face small dragon orchid is more afraid of rain, the rainy day is too long, pot soil water is easy to rot and die. The growing season also avoid root dryness, watering should look at the matrix, as long as the basin matrix is dry, and need to be watered thoroughly. It is better to water on a sunny morning. In the high temperature period of midsummer, it is irrigated once in the morning and once in the evening. During the bud development period, in addition to watering, spray some water on the bud appropriately. Attention should be paid to watering during flowering to avoid being dry and wet and to prevent rain. Watering should be controlled after flowering, dry and then watered, not too wet. Winter and spring is a semi-dormant growth lag period, at this time watering should be less, about once a week, the substrate can be maintained in a slightly wet state. Stop watering when the temperature is below 10 ℃, so as not to be cold and wet, causing the roots to rot. However, the indoor air can not be dried during the overwintering period, the ground must be sprinkled, and the room temperature should be kept above 10 ℃.

April to October is the main growth and development period of monkey-faced small dragon orchid, because the plant is very luxuriant, it needs less fertilizer, but reasonable fertilization can make the plant grow more robust and blossom more. Therefore, in the growth stage of new buds, once a month, the original fertilizer of "Huabao" can be diluted 2000 to 3000 times or other special orchid fertilizer for root watering and foliar spraying. Pay attention to the amount of fertilizer should not be large, the concentration should not be high, otherwise it will cause difficulties in water absorption, or even cause the death of the whole plant. Nitrogen fertilizer and balanced fertilizer are the main fertilizer in vegetative growth stage. It is suggested that the proportion of N ∶ P ∶ K should be 30 ∶ 10 ∶ 10 and 20 ∶ 20 ∶ 20, and that of N ∶ P ∶ K should be 10 ∶ 30 ∶ 10 and 20 ∶ 20 ∶ 20 during flower bud differentiation. The best fertilization time is in the evening, and water will be watered again the next morning. At the same time, 0.1% potassium dihydrogen phosphate is sprayed every other week during the flower bud period, which makes the flower arrow stout and the flowers bright.

If you breed a new plant, you can split it when you turn the pot in spring. After the full plant is poured out and the root matrix is cleaned, the clump of 3 to 5 stems is cut off between the connected rhizomes with a sharp knife and pulled out by hand, and the ramet seedlings are transplanted into the pot with a new cultivation medium. The mature seeds can also be sown in autumn or spring after flowering, and the seedlings can be transplanted and divided in 2 to 3 years when the seedlings grow into true leaves. Can also be cut, cut the tender stem in the water moss, it is easy to take root. In addition, because the stolon can grow at the rhizome of the plant, the stem segment with rooting can be cut and potted separately. If it is a large-scale production, the seedlings can be obtained by tissue culture.

Monkey face small dragon orchid disease occurs less, but occasionally should be given fungicide prevention, usually once a month. The common diseases are brown spot, anthracnose, white silk disease, tip blight, root rot and so on. Brown spot disease often occurs in warm and humid conditions, so we should pay more attention to ventilation to avoid high temperature and humidity. Once the occurrence of available orchid special orchid disease must be treated, or 50% manganese wettable powder 1500-3000 times liquid, 70% chlorothalonil wettable powder 600 times 800 times liquid and other agents to take turns to prevent and cure. When it is serious, first cut off the diseased leaves, spray 800 times the orchid must be treated, every 10 days spray, even spray 3 times.

After the occurrence of anthracnose, white silk disease, tip blight and root rot, the infected tissue should be cut off and burned to maintain good ventilation and light. Prevention and treatment of blue disease must be treated with wettable powder, methyl topiramate wettable powder, chlorothalonil wettable powder and other alternative use. At the initial stage of the disease, 800-fold solution of orchid must be sprayed. If the disease is serious, orchids can be used. Bizhi 1000 times + 75% methyl topiramate wettable powder 1000 times liquid-liquid mixed spraying, once every 10 to 15 days, a total of 3 times 4 times.

The main pests are shell insects, red spiders, aphids and so on. The prevention and control of insect pests can be done with 1000-2000 times liquid spray, such as orchid special spray, insect must be killed, Chong Kejing and so on.