January 2018 Plant of the evening Sarcochilus ceciliae
The plant has 18 flowering spikes each carrying mostly 3-4 flowers, about 13 mm wide which is large for this species. The tepals have attractive bicolour of pale pink tips which become white in the centre. The flowers are fairly open and carry prominent white labella. Being a sequential bloomer, it has been in flower since late November and was towards the end of its current flowering season.
Interestingly, this Sarcochilus species was named after Cecillia Viennot van Masseyk, a French grower of epiphytes who apparently had never been to Australia. The orchid has a fairly wide geographical distribution along the eastern coast of Australia, found from the Hastings Rivers area in New South Wales to the Atherton Tableland in south eastern Cape York Peninsula. It grows on rocks and cliffs in rainforests and open forests usually above 450 m. Colour of the flower ranges from pale to bright pink to nearly red and rarely white.
Sarcochilus ceciliae
Photo by Sau-wan Chan
Our plant originated from the Kroombit Tops in North Queensland. It grows in the sunniest corner of our north facing protected shade house. We avoid over watering of the plant during winter months. We had the plant for 5 years now and with time a vigorous root system has developed on top of the bark filled black plastic pot. Flowering spikes appear in around each November and with sequential flowering habit, the bloom lasts well into February next year.
Sarcochilus ceciliae has been extensively used in hybridisation. So far it has produced 23 primary hybrids and a total 266 progeny, with S. Kulnura Dragonfly, S. Allure and S. Elise amongst them.