Jumellea comorensis

Here is our Jumellea comorensis, which has been in bloom (just the one flower) for over a month now. I really like Angraecoid orchids - and a lot of them come from countries in the area the project I work for studies (only we study the sea - not too many orchids there...!) and it seems like quite a cool idea to grow things that come from more or less where you live. I took this one to the last EPOS meeting in September; it looks like the transport (or maybe just time) has done some damage; it's going a bit brown at the back there; it was initially pure white.

I've actually been to the island of Grand Comoro (Ngazidja) (comorensis means "from the comoros" - this species is known from Grand Comoro) - way back in 2003 - for a grand total of about 5 hours, hopping off a ship, taking a taxi to a tiny village, deciding the weather was too rough to dive from the beach (massive boulders making an eerie low pitched crunching noise) and then back to the ship. The roads there are incredibly narrow, and we noticed that many cars were missing wing mirrors. Amazingly, the taxi we took still had one. By the time we got from the capital, Moroni, to the village (Itsandra), the wing mirror was gone...

Anyway, enough words, let's look at some flowers!

Jumellea comorensis - front

Jumellea comorensis - lateral

Jumellea comorensis

The long spur seems to have stayed caught up in the node where the flower originated (see the second picture above); if you do a google image search of this species, it seems to be quite a common trait.