Sievekingia
Reichb.f.
siv-KING-ee-ah
In honor of Dr. Sieveking
Genus of ~15 species distributed from Costa Rica to Bolivia. Epiphytic in wet forest
at 400-1,200 meters. Pendent inflorescence, intermediate conditions, moist to wet.
Species
butcheri
colombiana
cristata
filifera
fimbriata
herrenhusana
hirtzii
jenmanii
marsupialis
peruviana
reichenbachiana
rhonhofiae
suavis
Paul Mitchell's Sievekingia Observations:
"It finally bloomed and it appears to be S. suavis: buds, tightly clustered, all facing one direction, opening same orientation, about 1" long, opening about 3/4 of the way (reminds me of some of the acinetas).
Flowers: sepals creamy off-white, petals and lip orange (like Lycaste aromatica), lip w/ some dk red markings inside at the base. Medicinal, slightly sweet odor, (but it has been in the 50's here, so that may affect the perfume output). Column, off-white, anther cap, same. Petals pointed but not sharply, smaller than sepals. Open spread of flowers about 3/4" to 5/8". Spike, sharply pendent, about 4" long.
With the cooler temperatures mentioned above the development of the buds slowed down. The plant was outside Sunday night with an overnight low of 45 F. which did not seem to stress the plant, but the buds looked a tiny bit dry on the surface. For this reason I brought the plant in today [Monday] and ran warmish water over the buds and within an hour they had all popped open but one which had dried out too much to continue developing, but it still tried to open."