April 2014 – Naresh Swami | The Orchids of the Sikkim Himalaya

Dendrobium rotundatum Benth.

Epiphyte. A pendulous plant with thick woody rhizomes and ovoid pseudo-bulbs arranged 4 to 5 cm apart. Bulbs 2 to 4 cm long partly covered with thin membranous sheaths. Leaves in pairs, oblong, with very short petioles or often sessile, 4 to 7 cm long and around 2 cm in width, apex notched. Flowers solitary, 2 to 3 cm across. Sepals and petals yellowish brown with many veins. Lip yellowish brown, edges of the side lobes with bright orange, apical lobe with a yellow triangle on its mid and the sides with dull purple colour, the base of the lip with two irregular bright orange markings. Sepals spreading, dorsal ovate to lanceolate, lateral pair slightly falcate. Petals narrower than the sepals, lanceolate, arching over the lip. Lip obovate-oblong, side lobes rounded, the disc with three lamellae, apical lobe slightly decurved.

The Pursuit

The most technically perfect orchid photograph of my entire career was of this species. This species even though not common can be easily located hanging down from huge trees in its habitats with very much ease. I found this plant three years earlier and studied it in its habitats. The authors King and Pantling described the flower as pale chestnut brown. While I was studying the flower, its unusual colouration attracted me. The flowers got bright orange stripes and markings, dull purple on its apical lobes and three distinctive bright yellow lamellae. Neither the authors in their monumental book nor any other books published later described those colourations in detail. As a challenge I took up the task of documenting the flower with all those details. The species was in plenty in that region. However, the plants pendulous growth, hanging down tall trees, always stand as a hurdle for precise photography. In the wind the pendulous stems swing to and fro causing great difficulty for my documentation work. The first hurdle was accomplished by finding a plant which was growing down a tree with its main trunk as its support. I selected comparatively a big flower (2.8 cm across!!!!). Studied it in detail to verify all the structures are intact and colouring pattern are perfect. Then the main task of arranging the lighting instruments was undertaken. As carrying several tripods to position flashes are very difficult, I often use locally available bamboos or broken branches from the forest. My intention was to use 8 micro flashes and 2 optical cable lightnings. Calculating the exact positions for each flashes and its angles inside a deep forest is not an easy task. My experience of working with those equipments and terrain always helped me in my field work. The task of taking several photographs, analysing them, rearranging the flashes at different angles to re-shoot, went on for long hours. Finally after a lot of efforts I got this perfect photograph of the species which captured the unknown characteristics of this flower.

Dendrobium porphyrochilum Lindl.

Epiphyte. Pseudo-bulbs cylindric, very small, 0.5 cm to 1.25 cm long and less than 0.5 cm in diameter, extending into a narrow stem of very short length. Leaves 2 to 5, 2 to 4 cm in length and less than 1 cm in width, linear oblong, obliquely notched at the apex. Raceme terminal, 3 to 5 cm in length and with 3 to 7 small flowers. Flowers hardly 2 cm across, sepals and petals pale green with purplish red nerves, lip purplish red with pale green margins. Sepals lanceolate with the lateral pair longer and wider than the dorsal. Petals shorter than the petals, oblong. Lip elliptic, decurved from base, edges entire, apex sub-acute.

The Pursuit

The plants of this species are very small with thin stems and narrow leaves. In the Eastern Himalayas it is seen growing around sub-alpine regions only. I was so eager to see this plant and was searching it for more than three years. It blooms along with the start of monsoon season. Due to the rains the forest floors will be full of undergrowths and leeches, this makes it very difficult to work in sub-alpine forests. All the small trees will be full of fresh leaves and finding a small epiphytic plant from those thick forested terrains will be very difficult. For a whole week I was searching for this plant on various locations. The thick forest floor prevented intrusion deep inside and I could not locate the species. I had decided to search this species where the undergrowth may not be so dense. Suddenly I spotted some area on the hill slope which was washed away due to a landslide of the previous monsoon. The landslide had taken away all the undergrowths and left the slope with a few trees only. I had an intuition that this species will be there on those trees. Slowly and carefully I climbed down the slope and searched the first tree. Unfortunately there was nothing, not even a small plant, on any of its branches. Tried the next 4 trees, the result was the same. Again I climbed down and searched more than 10 to 15 trees and found 7 plants of this species. The plants were very small and without any buds. It took several risky and dangerous treks on that slope for another five weeks to see those plants in bloom and produced this wonderful photograph.

Dendrobium ruckeri Lindl.

Epiphytic. Stems pendulous, branched and slender, as long as 20 to 30 cm. Leaves lanceolate, acute, 4 to 7 cm long and about 2 cm in width. Flowers 2 to 3 cm across, leaf opposed, solitary. Sepals and petals yellow; lip with numerous brown streaks margined with yellow; the disc crest is greenish yellow. Dorsal sepal elliptic, narrowed towards the apex; lateral sepals much broader, blunt. Petals slightly shorter than the lateral sepals, oblong, sub-spathulate, blunt. Lip much curved from its auricled base; the side lobes large, broad; the terminal lobe sub-orbicular, bifid, deflexed; the disc with a central papillose crest.

The Pursuit

This is one of the rarest of all Dendrobiums of the region. In my three years of study in the region, I found only 4 plants. Even though I found this plant two seasons earlier, I had to put a lot of hard work to see them in bloom. The location was at 4800 ft on the edge of a protected area. The motorable road which connected my place of stay and the nearest trek road to the location was at altitude of 380 ft. From that 380 ft to 4800 ft, the trek was almost vertical. The most difficult trek I had ever made in the region. The route was through the edge of a vertical steep rocky mountain almost straight up the hill. The trek though a zig-zag route will always be safer than a straight climb. This location was on the fringes of a protected area, as such the villagers were not given permission by the authorities to build a wider and safer trek route there fearing habitat loss of some rare trees of that forest. Every day the climb took more than 4 hours. The plant also showed very unusual behaviour. The buds took considerably long time to be in bloom. As I was had minimum literature on this species I was unable to judge its blooming time. Since I did not want to miss those flowers that particular season and the rarity of the species made me regularly visit the location. For 17 days I took that steep route to the location, and worked for more than 14 hours a day including the long drive from my place of stay. Finally, I produced this wonderful photograph, probably the only one of its kind from its natural habitat.

Dendrobium aphyllum (Roxb.) C.E.C.Fisch.

Epiphyte. Stems as long as 2 to 5 ft, pendulous, smooth, slightly swollen at the nodes. Leaves 2 to 5 cm long and 1 to 2 cm in width, thick, lanceolate, tapering towards its tip, sessile (the leaves fall much early). Flowers 2 to 3 cm across, 1 to 4 in numbers from very short peduncles from the nodes of leafless stems. Sepals and petals are pale pink networked with darker shade; lip pale yellow to white with a few purple streaks on the tubular base and its mouth. Sepals sub-equal, oblong-lanceolate, sub-acute. Petals much broader than the sepals, elliptic, blunt. Lip sub-orbicular, side lobes absent, the disc hairy, the base convolute to take the shape of a tube.

Dendrobium pierardi, Roxb (Dendrobium aphyllum (Roxb) — Dendrobium pierardi Roxb (Dendrobium aphyllum Roxb).

The Pursuit

Come April and May, the tropical valleys of the region are full of this species in bloom. Pendulous huge clusters with hundreds of flowers can easily be spotted on most of the trees, dancing gently to the tune of morning and afternoon tropical winds. The only difficulty for people like me, is that it got a wide mouthed hairy lip which attracts all dust from those topical environment. I examined a lot of flowers to get a perfect dust free flower in vain. I understood the fact that, like many other flowers this also needed to be shot as early as it opens. We never expected to extend our stay at that place after dusk and hence were not carrting our camping equipments. As we are very known to most of the village people one night stay was not be a problem. However, I slept in the open on the banks of the mighty Teesta. My friend who accompanied me collected a lot of fallen dry leaves and dug out the sand on that river bank to make a soft natural sleeping bed for me and I had a comfortable sleep there. The next day we were up before the first light of the Sun and climbed up the tree looking for a few perfect flowers to shoot. Got this beautiful bunch and produced this wonderful photograph without much difficulty. The tragedy of this species is that in the year 2012 this species was illegally collected by the locals for some outsiders who were active with some cross border trade. It took several weeks for the administration to notice the disappearance of this species, by then most of the plants were inside the laboratories thousands of miles away.

Dendrobium nobile Lindl.

Epiphyte. Stems, 30 to 60 cm or even longer, erect, widening to the apex. Leaves 4 to 6 cm in length and around 2 cm in width, oblong, apex sub-obtuse and notched, narrowed to the base, coriaceous. Flowers in short racemes from the nodes of leafy as well leafless stems, number various between 1 and 5, each 3 to 5 cm across. Sepals and petals are purple turning white at the base; lip with a deep purple blotch surrounded with white flushed with pale yellow and a purple mucro. Sepals sub-equal, the dorsal oblong-elliptic, the lateral oblong. Petals broader than the sepals, elliptic. Both sepals and petals many veined. Lip broadly ovate-oblong, hairy inside, the apex slightly and mucronate.

The Pursuit

The State Flower of Sikkim. Once a common species of the tropical valleys, collected in large numbers for commercial purposes made it very scarce in its natural habitats. Sir. George King and Robert Pantling described the colouration of flower in detail and I was looking for a perfect match from various locations. However, in most of the cases the description about its sepals and petals was never matched. As per their noting,“the sepals and petals are always purple shading off into a white base”. I decided to look for this species in other locations also. The work I undertook was first of its kind from the region and I wanted it to produce better results. With that intention I visited several locations for this species, to find the exact colouration of flowers as described by the great authors. On high altitudes (above 3800 ft) the flowers are found to be more purplish and at very low altitudes (in the hot valleys of River Teesta) they were more towards a paler shade. Hence, I decided to find the species from an intermediate altitude of 1800 to 2600 ft. I searched for four days in a new location at 2200 ft for this species in vain. Even though I found a lot of them in bloom in some homes, I decided to find a few plants from its natural habitat itself. A young boy of that village, who used to venture deep into the forest, helped me to find a few plants inside the forest. Most of the stems were with full bloom flowers. In those areas the trees are often with many branches which enable easy climbing. We both climbed up to examine those flowers and to my surprise found that the colouration is exactly the same as described by the pioneers of orchids around 120 years ago. It seems the authors also collected the species from around the same altitude for their monumental work. As usual when in plenty, it will be very difficult to find a perfect one to photograph. After climbing several trees found this perfect bunch of flowers and produced this amazing photograph of this Himalayan beauty. This species is a prime example of variations caused due to altitude difference. Even though many species survive on a wide range of altitudes, all of them got their own perfect habitats.

Dendrobium heterocarpum Wall.

Epiphyte. Stems three or four together, 10 to 15cm long and 2 to 3 cm in cross section at the apex, narrowed at the base and gradually widening towards the apex, ribbed, sheathed. Leaves 4 to 6 cm long and 1 to 2 cm in width, elliptic-oblong, sub-acute, deciduous during flowering. Flowers 3 to 5 on a short peduncle, 2 to 3 cm across. Sepals and petals pale brownish green, lip is of a slightly darker shade of sepals and petals, with many brownish red streaks and spots on its disc and sides. Sepals sub-equal, the dorsal longer, linear-oblong; the lateral pair lanceolate. Petals smaller and broader than the sepals, lanceolate. Both sepals and petals five nerved. Lip pointed, decurved, with undulate edges and hairy disc.

The Pursuit

A locally common species of the tropical forests. I had spotted this species in large numbers during my various surveys and marked as “seen” and waited for its blooming season. In the referral book, the blooming time was mentioned as April and I decided to visit those plants by mid March. The months of February and March were full of blooming and every day I was forced to travel more than 50 to 120 km on vehicle and around 10 to 15 km on foot. I didn’t want to miss any species as I would have to wait for another year to find those in bloom again. So every day I check and re-check all those in the blooming list and finalise the trips to various locations. In the second week of February, I was on a trip to a place around 70 km from my base station for a ground orchid, which I found a week before. From the motorable road I used to trek another 7 or 8 km to the location. So used to set out early morning and reach the last point by road and trekked to the location of the ground orchid. Mysteriously I found that the two ground orchid plants, I had spotted a week earlier were missing. The location was so remote no humans venture there. It would have been uprooted by wild pigs or eaten by deers which roam there. As I got company in the form of the pilot of my vehicle, we started searching the whole area for more of those species. We searched for over three hours, but were not able to find another plant. Totally disappointed and tired we returned back. On the way back, I accidentally spotted this species in full bloom on a tree next to the trekking path, just a single stem in flower. It actually surprised me, to see this plant in bloom as early as mid February. Even though I had spotted this plant earlier and I knew I would get them in flower in the coming days, the find on that afternoon made me forget the disappearance of those ground orchids. Climbed up the tree and produced this wonderful photograph. Also looked for more plants of the species in flower to find only one more without any buds. While returning, the kind words of my pilot, “don’t worry swamiji, at-least we got something in bloom!!!” broke the silence created by the disappearance of those ground orchids.

Dendrobium formosum Roxb.

Epiphyte. Stems erect, 10 to 18 cm long and 1 to 2 cm in cross section, cylindrical, slightly narrowed to the base. Leaves alternate, sessile, oblong, the apex notched, 5 to 8 cm long and 1 to 2 cm in width. Flowers large, sepal and petals pure white, lip white with an orbicular yellow marking on its disc extended to the base in the form of a ridge. Sepals very narrow, oblong-lanceolate, acute, spreading, the lateral ones very slightly keeled. Petals much larger than the petals, sub-orbicular. Lip broadly obovate, side lobes indistinct, terminal lobe dilated, apex very broad.

The Pursuit

This species bears the largest flowers of all Dendrobiums of the region and the flowers are very attractive too. Sir. Joseph Dalton Hooker in his iconic work, “The Flora of British India” noted about three varieties of this species. I never came across this species on any of my flower hunts. The region were I lived was famous for many flower nurseries and got a good collection of many species. Still, this species remained missing, with no information available with anyone about its habitats, other than, “At the base of Sikkim-Himalayas” noted by Sir. George King and Robert Pantling. The flowering season was mentioned as May, in their monumental work on orchids. With the eagerness to see this species in bloom I planned my surveys to the plains of the Himalayas in the early summer days. The plains are generally of active Tea estates, which produces thousands of tons of Tea every year. The estates are full of activities with thousands and thousands of workers involved everyday. They got their own hospitals, schools, accommodations, roads, shopping centers etc. However, as a general rule they don’t cut any trees and those trees host a lot of tropical epiphytic orchids also. I decided to concentrate on those trees inside the estates for this species. Every day I came across a lot of workers and showed them the drawings of this species, to ascertain if anybody had come across this plant. Working on those plains under the open sky in the summer months of March and April was a very tiring affair. Moreover, my base station was at an altitude about 4000 ft, where the climate was very moderate and comfortable. Every day in a matter of 3 hrs drive I am in the plains where the temperature soars above 40C, which was like stepping inside a hot furnace. However, the desire to find this plant and a feeling that I will get this species in that season itself made me visit various estates in the plains continuously for several days. Every day I returned with no trace of this species but with many admirers, who were so happy to know about my passion. One day I came to know about a former manager of a tea estate who got a good collection of tropical orchids of the area. A visit to his home made be so happy, he had around 140 tropical orchids in his garden, a few of them were in full bloom also. However, my purpose of visit was not fulfilled, the species I am looking for was not found there. I enquired with him about the species I am looking for. He was so happy with my work and explained to me about all those species he had seen and collected from the region, including the one I was looking for. He was also having that species till few years back, it died because of some reason. But, he helped with sufficient information about the place from where his gardener brought it some 30 years back. The next day I started my new search in the area he mentioned. Most of the trees there were more than 50 to 60 years old, so I was sure I will find the plant I am looking for. After three continuous days of survey with the help of a few friends we found 7 plants of this species, 3 in buds. It was like the plants were waiting for me. All the plants were on the sides of tall trees at around 15 to 20 ft height. Climbed up those trees with buds to ascertain the identity and the time required for the buds to bloom. Waited for 11 days to see the first flower in bloom. My vehicle was sent to bring the former manager to that place, as I wished he should also be part of the documentation process. Without his advice, I might not have surveyed those areas and would have never seen the species also. Everything was perfect, the climb, the wind, the placing of flashes etc and produced a wonderful photograph of the species. Those days were so hot, I spend more money on buying drinking water for me than to the fuel for my vehicle!!!.

Dendrobium fimbriatum Hook.

Epiphyte. Stem as long as 2 to 4 feet, tapering towards the apex, sub-erect. Leaves oblong-lanceolate, pointed at its apex and narrowed towards its base, 4 to 7 cm long and 1 to 2 cm in width at its mid portion. Racemes appear laterally from the nodes of the leafy stems, pendulous, with 5 to 9 flowers, the peduncle with many sheathing bracts at its base. Flowers 3 to 4 cm across, sepals and petals bright yellow, lip of the same colour with a large orbicular reddish-brown patch around its middle portion. Sepals oblong, blunt, spreading. Petals wider than the sepals, oblong. Lip orbicular, with undulate and fringed margins.

The Pursuit

This species produces the most beautiful flowers of the region. Its bright yellow colour attracts much attention, however finding it from its natural habitat is becoming very hard. Usually found growing atop the canopies of tall trees only. I was in search for this species for the last few years, but never found it. One afternoon, I got a photograph of this species as a message on my phone from a friend of the region. He was undertaking a contract work of installing high tension polls for a power distribution company. They were working in a valley and were installing high tension wires across it. A set of those wires got entangled on the canopy of a tall tree. The whole of the morning they tried to get those wires freed from the thick canopy and never succeeded. Finally they decided to chop down some branches to release those entangled wires. Few workers climbed up that tall tree and started chopping down some branches. While cutting down the branches they saw a huge plant of this species in full bloom and informed my contractor friend on the ground about the flowers. He was well aware of my interest and orchid research of the region and even sent his mobile up the tree to get a photograph of those beautiful flowers and messaged me. I immediately identified the species and requested him to wait for me till the next day morning. The following day I went to that place as early as 5:30 AM. The workers were waiting for me, as they had a very hectic schedule. They were ready to bring down the flowers for me, but I insisted to climb the tree. In my entire flower hunt I never broke a flower or a leaf for making documentary evidences. The climb up that tall tree was not an easy task. As the workers were well equipped with a lot of materials, they immediately fixed a pulley up the tree and made me sit on a swing chair and pulled me up the canopy. Three of the workers at the top of the canopy helped me to attain a good sitting posture to produce this wonderful photograph. I never looked down to the ground from that position, except once to acknowledge my friend for all his support. To be frank, he was as small as this flower!!!

Dendrobium farmeri Paxt.

Epiphyte. Stems erect, clavate with thickened apex, 10 to 18 cm in height with the apex 2 to 4 cm in diameter, boldly angled. Leaves two or three, from the apex of the stem, ovate-lanceolate, acute, narrowed to the base, coriaceous, 7 to 12 cm long and 2 to 4 cm in width. Flowers in racemose from the apex of the stem, pendulous, decurved, longer than the leaves, but laxly flowered. The peduncle with bracts at its base and apex. Flowers 2 to 3 cm across, sepals and petals are of an uniform shade of pale pink, lip almost white with a bright yellow spot on its base, almost covering half the disc. Sepals ovate-oblong, with entire edges, acute. Petals broader than the sepals, rotund, with fringed margins. Both sepals and petals three to five nerved. Lip orbicular, disc pubescent with fringed margins.

The Pursuit

A very rare plant of the tropical valleys. I had never seen this species in the Sikkim-Himalayas, got a few from various locations only. I had strictly followed the principle of not exposing rare plants to the local people around for its safety. If exposed they will remove them from their natural habitats to decorate their homes. The clavate shape of its stem, that also in solitary, attracts attention of everyone, may be that is the reason it disappeared from its natural habitats. I found only four plants from the whole region. Starting early summer I visited all the four plants I spotted on a regular basis. The villagers always make a lot of enquiries about new flower finds, and make it difficult to hide informations from them as they also go through photos on my iPad. Finally by the end of March, raceme started appearing and I decided it is time to take a call on which plant I planned to shoot. I wanted the best flowering buds, at the same time, I want to make sure nobody of that area notices my interest in that plant. One of the healthy plant was on the side of a trek road to a near by village. The path is frequented by villagers so I would end up attracting a crowd if I explore that tree. My second option was a huge tree which needed more climbing skills. Hence decided on a plant which got a short raceme than the others. This plant was on a tree inside a thick forest area not frequented by anyone because of the presence of law and order officials and elephants. High temperatures, thorny bushes, frequent forest fires make regular survey in those areas very difficult. When I deal with a single plant, I have to put extra efforts also. I knew there is no guarantee to find this plant in the coming seasons. Waited patiently for the buds to be in flower. Luckily I got a friend, an official, of that area who was so kind enough to come with me several times to the location of the plant. He was so impressed with my work and seeing my difficulty in climbing the tree regularly, he decided to make a 50 ft high bamboo ladder for me. In no time, he made a ladder with the help of two of his colleagues. After three more days of wait I got a few flowers in bloom and produced this wonderful photograph.

Dendrobium densiflorum Wall.

Epiphyte. Stems erect, long as 20 to 45 cm, clavate, with swollen nodes and four angled. Leaves 4 to 6 from the apex of the stem only, oblong-lanceolate, 6 to 10 cm long and 2 to 4 cm in width, acute, slightly narrowed to the base. Flowers crowded, in long pendulous racemose of 10 to 25 cm, sometimes even more, from the apex of the stem. Sepals and petals pale bright yellow, lip is bright orange yellow with paler margins. Sepals ovate-elliptic, obtuse. Petals broader than the sepals, ovate-orbicular. Lip orbicular-rhomboid, basal half convolute, apical half spreading, its upper surface hairy and with fringed margins.

The Pursuit

On arrival of spring, all the houses of the region, irrespective of tropical valleys or hills, is full of this attractive bright yellow flowers of the species. The local population has widely collected the species from its habitats and planted it in their homes. It is observed that the species bears healthy flowers when planted in pots. Luckily because of its huge population, it still survives in the wild, even though its numbers are alarmingly reduced every year. Only a couple of orchid species of the region got the “club shaped” erect stems, hence this species attracts attention of all plant hunters. If it is in bloom, the same can be spotted a mile away. I had spotted a few good population of this plant from various region and observed that the colouration of the lip varies from the descriptions of Sir. George King and Robert Pantling. They described the lip as, “orange-yellow colour, paler towards the margins”. Even though widely photographed by many, no photographs showed the colour variations on its lips. Determined to try my micro lighting experience, I was looking for flowers with the exact lip descriptions. Finally found the same from an intermediate altitude, between the tropical valleys and sub-tropical region, a good population of the species on tall trees on a densely wooded valley. The previous year I had stayed in the area for more than 40 days, so got a good number of friends there. With a huge number of people ready to help, I proceeded in the morning to the location. By the time I changed my trekking boots and trousers, some of them were already up the 60 ft tall trees. When more and more people are there to help, things will go very smooth. With great ease I was also up the tree in no time. Photographed a very long racemose, after a few shots only I observed that its lip is very hairy and got a lot of dust particles, particularly small ashes (may be from the remains of forest fires) on it. It was so disappointing to have a long day work of many go in vain. I explained to my friends that those type of photographs are of no use, we need fresh flowers. Ideas came in, in the form of, “taking a plant home”, “covering the buds” etc. I was determined to wait for another racemose to bloom and shoot the flower in the early hours of its bloom. Spotted a healthy plant with a long racemose. Every day visited the spot with the entire “army” with more and more joining each day and finally on the sixth day it was in full bloom, that also, the whole buds of the racemose was in bloom. The flowers were also of the same descriptions of the referral book. As I was there early in the morning, the flowers were void of any dust. Spent considerable time up the tree with many others to make this beautiful photograph of the most photographed species. While back in the village, an old man was asking, the purpose of this much difficulty I made to photograph the flower when he got it in plenty in his house!!!.