PO Box 24425 Fort Lauderdale, FL 33307 US
Section Latouria
Cultural Information
SPECIES:
This group originates from the Papua and New Guinea area and surrounding islands. This area is quite variable as far as water conditions, so potting and water will vary by the species. For example Dendrobium polysema grows in areas where the new growths are protected from rain water, yet the roots get a substantial amount of water. I grow it in a plastic pot with sphagnum moss and during its growing season, sometimes sit the pot in a tray with a shallow amount of water, if the plant is hanging, then I water it almost daily during the growing season. In contrast, my Dendrobium spectabile is grown in Aliflor (also called Hydroton or leca) and gets watered either when it rains, or a couple times per week.
Potting or Mounting: If you live where you can mount plants onto trees outside, then it definitely can be done. Just remember though, if you live in an area where it is pretty arid, you will have to increase humidity and make sure that you water plants often enough during the growing season.
For potting, you want pots on the smaller size. I find that clay pots and plastic pots work well with most of these species. I prefer plastic pots for mine. As a medium, Aliflor/Hydroton/leca by itself although I sometimes will mix in a little bit of sphagnum moss or coco-peat to the pellets. Some plants, like Den. convolutum and Den. polysema, I pot only in sphagnum moss and they do incredibly well. Air circulation is key. The main thing to remember is to keep each plant into a pot which might seem small for its size. During the growing season, this plant will usually dry pretty quickly and if grown outside, can tolerate the rains of a rainy season. If you are worried about plants falling over due to the small pot, I tend to use hangers on my plants and hang them, especially until the roots really get established. Once roots are really established, you can remove pot hangers and set the potted plant into a larger pot for display purposes while in bloom, but while growing, I always hang them. If you have them mounted on trees, then you obviously don’t have to worry about this.
Light: I give these plants as much possible light that I can. Many get bright filtered light, like convolutum, some get a little bit f direct early morning sun, until about 11 AM like polysema, and others get full sun almost all day long like spectabile. Just make sure to check with growers as to which is best to grow them. My convolutum did great as far as growths are concerned in full sun, but it never bloomed. I was told that they aren't good with blooming in full sun and moved them to bright filtered light, more than a Cattleya, but no full sun, and it is almost always in bloom now.
Water: These types like quite a bit of water while actively growing and a drier, but not completely dry winter period. Only lessen the water, do not stop it completely.
Section Description
(Pictured above - Dendrobium polysema).
This section is characterized by the club shaped pseudobulbs, some being short and others elongated and slender carrying towards the apex of the cane leaves that do not have sheathing at the bases and blooms on a nearly terminal, few flowered inflorescences carrying flowers which are somewhat fleshy and contain a prominent three lobed lip with a prominently raised callus. Some of the species of this group have flowers whose posterior petals and sepals are better marked or colored than their anterior surfaces.
Some of the commonly found and cultivated species in this group are: alexandrae, atroviolaceum, convolutum, polysema, and spectabile.