EDITOR – I live at 608 Currie Road and a few years ago a woman wrote to Berea Mail commenting on, what she claimed, was a rather “rare” group of orchids (I believe that the collective noun for orchids is “coterie”) growing on a jacaranda tree, on the pavement outside 604/608 Currie Road.
We have lived here for about 15 years and they were ‘established’ in the tree when we arrived. If I remember correctly, she claimed that they originated from somewhere in South America. Unfortunately, the jacaranda tree succumbed to an infestation of white ants and fell down about six or seven months ago. At the time, I ‘pulled off’ several shoots/stems (not sure what the correct terminology is) from various branches of the jacaranda tree and proceeded to attach them, using string, to three separate trees in our garden.
After a few weeks it was apparent that some of the shoots were putting out ‘new’ runners – sort of milky cream in colour – and I became quite excited that the orchids would ‘take’. I had been told that orchids are very fussy plants and I imagined that it would be several years before they began to flower. You can imagine my surprise when, about a month ago, one of the shoots suddenly produced a bloom. Then, about two weeks ago, another bloom appeared on a shoot, from a separate host tree, in a different part of the garden.
I was hoping that, perhaps, through my letter, the woman who had first commented on these orchids would see my correspondence and contact me to let me know what this species is called. As you can see from the photograph, this bloom is quite magnificent. My contact number is 031 312 8139.
Ray Lalouette
Durban
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