Pleurothallid-l mailing list

[Ron Maunder <pondeeza@enternet.co.nz>]

Hello Dan,

Good to know there is still someone else out there!  Many thanks for 
your instructions re propagating Restrepia leaves.  You covered it 
magnificently.  I seem to recall plastic bags came into the method I 
read about.  Any experience/comment on putting the compot in a 
plastic bag to keep humidity up?

I just called a good friend who has a number of Pleurothallus plants. 
She gets pods and will drop a plant over to me when she gets some so 
I can try them at different dates.  She says she threw out the last 
lot of Restrepia pods but will save some for me to try next time 
around.

As you would know hand pollinating many of these tiny flowered genera 
takes some doing but it seems some insects (ants?) do it regularly 
here out in greenhouses.  I had to just about "stand on my head" to 
pollinate a Restrepia once and only got a dozen protocorms which 
obviously didn't like the media I put them on.  Maybe they like it 
real weak?  I'd share the formula with you if I had one which worked! 
Maybe Thomas or others have some answers.  Maybe someone out there 
can put you onto a US lab that has success?

Yes, there is real confusion over the Rstp striata name here.  There 
are about 4 or 5 varieties going under that name around New Zealand. 
Sounds like you have a good collection and your ear to the ground 
over new names?  Are there any authoritative illustrated articles 
with the right names that you can point me too?  Preferably with 
colour pictures!

Green coconuts on special for Christmas! My experience in the islands 
when climbing an extinct volcano looking for orchids was that the 
water from green ones was cool and thirst quenching but those that 
had a brown tinge and were maturing had ghastly fermented tasting 
water inside!  We had to stop in a deserted village to get a drink on 
the way back in the dark! Further up the mountain water from bamboo 
was good to drink too.  I seem to recall the green ones had a 
jelly-like "copra" at that stage which probably has good food value. 
Possibly used in Asian cooking?  Ripe coconuts are all I see in our 
small city greengrocers.

Cheers,

Ron Maunder, Tauranga, New Zealand