Ginger Orchid

If you're visiting the Fuqua Orchid Center this week you really need to take a moment to inhale this orchid, Clowesia russeliana. My nose says ginger root, one of my favorite scents in the Catasetinae (the subtribe containing Clowesia, Catasetum, Cycnoches and Mormodes). Delicious.

Clowesia russeliana grows as an epiphyte at 600 to 1000 meters elevation in seasonally dry open forests from Mexico through Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama to Venezuela. Our plants drop their leaves in October and remain leafless through their dormancy.

August through October is the best time for fragrance in the FOC. In fact, the Orchid Display House smells like a cookie factory this week, with five species of Stanhopea, four species of Catasetum, a Lycomormium, a Coryanthes and our ginger orchid, Clowesia russeliana, on display. Be sure to stop by!