Tag Archives: Orchids

Aliceara Pacific Nova orchid

A lot of the plants, fish, and birds that I see on the Big Island are new to me, but I find it satisfying to identify them. It’s often not straightforward. Striking colors or patterns that I think will be easy to place can often prove elusive. Juvenile birds and fish might look nothing like their parents. Other times, a mostly undistinguished look might pop up first in my search.

Orchids are a big challenge since there are numerous hybrids. I’m pretty confident this is Aliceara Pacific Nova not just because it matches photos online, but also because there was a tag at the base of the plant, a useful search tip I’m happy to pass along here.

Doritaenopsis hybrid orchid

As with most of my orchid photos, I include the words ‘I think’ when it comes to talking about what it is. I think this is a Doritaenopsis hybrid. Doritaenopsis orchids are a cross of Phaleanopsis and Doritis orchids, in this case Champion Lightning and Chianxen Magpie. This one was at Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden.

For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.

Oncidium orchid

I’m pretty sure this is an oncidium orchid, though I’m not sure which one. There are 400 or so to choose from and I haven’t yet been able to identify it positively. I love seeing the different orchids, but haven’t started down the slippery slope of trying to grow them – yet!

This one was at the Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden north of Hilo on the east side of the Big Island. For more information about Hawaii Tropical Botanical Garden, go to htbg.com.

Degarmoara Winter Wonderland ‘White Fairy’

Apparently, there are around 8 billion different kinds of orchid. That, of course, doesn’t include hybrids. In my efforts to identify this flower, I tried all kinds of descriptions in my online search engine – ‘white orchid, purple spots,’ ‘epiphyte orchid, white with purple,’ ‘white and purple epiphyte.”

No matter what I tried I didn’t see anything that matched. I rifled through books at the library without success. Finally, I found a book, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Orchids edited by Alec Pridgeon, that also failed to solve my problem. But the photos in the book did seem to indicate that this flower might be an oncidium orchid.

So I searched for ‘oncidium orchid, white with purple spots’ and voila, there it was. Of course, this being orchids, some photos were identified as ‘White Wonderland.’ Others referred to it as ‘Aliceara Winter Wonderland “White Fairy.”’ I plumped for ‘Degarmoara Winter Wonderland “White Fairy”’ because that appeared to be the more numerous choice. In the world of orchids, there seem to be varying opinions as to which plant fits in which species.

Now the only question is, how did this orchid come to be growing deep in the branches of a tangerine tree?

Denobrium orchid

I think this is a denobrium orchid. It’s an epiphytic plant, growing off of the lower part of a lychee tree.

Cattleya orchid

I think this is a cattleya orchid, growing on the trunk of a lychee tree. This particular tree has two or three other epiphytes, plants that grow on other plants, on its trunk.