Species Orchid, Yellow Ebine, Calanthe

Agony...

I have known this plant for more than 15 years as C. sieboldii, but after earnest discussions (with very little b...Read Moreiting or chair-throwing) with one of DG's most respected taxonomists, I have been forced to reconsider, and post this beautiful terrestrial orchid as Calanthe striata. The reasons:
1. Not only Kew, but the MBG also list their living specimens under that name. IPNI lists "sieboldii" as a later synonym...
2. My Orchid Guru, Dr. Phillip Cribb (Curator of the Orchid Herbarium at Kew), lists it as such in his informative 1989 work "Hardy Orchids" (P. Cribb & C. Bailes, Timber Press), and as any orchidophile knows, the good doctor is *always* right... :)

I would, of course, be open to any monographic evidence that my beloved "sieboldii" is the correct epitaph... heck, I'll even pay you!!!

That said...

IMHO, this is the most spectacular of the temperate Calanthes. Blooming in deep shade, it is far less hardy than it's cousin C. discolor, and needs to have a mulch/leaf litter cover during the winter months if there are hard frosts. Does not appreciate compacted soil, and I've found that digging mine up in the late summer every five years or so, adding compost to the soil, and replanting tends to increase the number of blooms.

Old plants can be back-bulbed: ie, several years of old psuedobulbs form an underground chain - you can snip off 3-4 of these and if treated well, they will produce a new growing point. The donor plant, deprived of energy reserves, may not bloom as heartily for one year though...

As Baa mentioned with C. discolor, the flowers are relished by slugs, so bait or toads are called for. Mine also seem to be the first aphid target of spring - they attack the flower ovaries rather than the flowers themselves.