ANOS Sydney February 2019 Plant of the Evening

Earina valida

Plant of the Evening is a rather uncommon epiphyte seldom seen in monthly benching. It is a member of a small genus Earina which currently is comprised of only 7 species, all native to various islands in the Pacific Ocean. Earina valida can be found in Fiji, New Caledonia, Samoa and Vanuatu in mountain forests at elevations of 300 to 1100 meters as a large to giant sized, hot to warm growing epiphyte with clustered, ovoid pseudobulbs.

The plant on the bench was a well grown specimen with 4 long (>50 cm) inflorescences in different degrees of flowering arising from four centres of growth. Individual flowers are white, small (<1 cm width) but in numerous numbers arranged in groups of five on short branches along the top half of each inflorescence.

Most interestingly, flowering can continue on the same inflorescence for three years. Also flowering at least in the natural habitat can occur at any time of the year.

Mike Harrison was given the plant which came from New Caledonia in the early 1990s and for the past over 20 years it grew in his unheated greenhouse in Wilberforce, often enduring the hot summer (>40 oC) and cold winter of the area.