Tag: Coelogyne cristata

Coelogyne cristata Lindl.

Epiphyte as well as lithophyte. Pseudo-bulbs 3 to 5 cm long, cylindric, very smooth, sheathed at the base, attached rather 3 to 5 cm distant on stout rhizome. Entire plant is pendulous. Leaves in pairs, narrowed to the sessile base, linear-oblong, acute, 7 to 12 cm long and around 2 cm in width. Racemes from the base of the pseudobulbs, pendulous, about as long as the leaves. Flowers large 4 to 6 c across, white except the disc of the lip, which is yellowish orange. Sepals and petals sub-equal, oblong, with entire undulate edges. Lip oblong, with rounded lateral lobes, disc between the side lobes with four fimbriate lamellae.

Coelogyne cristata, Lindl
Coelogyne cristata Lindl.

The Pursuit

A plant often found in huge pendulous clusters growing on trees and rocks of the region above 7000 ft. Found this in flower on a holiday trip to a near by waterfall. However, my favourite shooting gear, 105mm/2.8 micro lens and flashes were not with me. Cutting short my trip ahead and with a promise of joining the party next day, I returned to my place to get all the flower shooting accessories. Some minor trouble with the vehicle delayed my return to the location. I reached there by evening only, by then the freshness of those flowers found in the morning was not there, and decided to find a few new ones the next day. Went ahead to the water falls to be with my friends for the evening. Started the journey before sunrise the next day so as to be at the spot to shoot the flower in full bloom. I found 28 of them in flower, it was such a wonderful sight and will remain in my mind when ever I talk about this particular species. As usual photographing a pure white flower is a very tricky affair. The latest lighting techniques I use will even make microscopic dusts visible. However, with God’s grace the one I selected to photograph was a perfect one and I had this wonderful photograph without much trouble.

Coelogyne cristata Lindl. – the variety form.

A look alike plant of its species, but very rarely found. The only observed difference is mainly with the flowers. The sepals and petals are not much undulated, slightly wavy only. The other difference is with the colouration of the disc between the side lobes, it is very pale yellow or in some cases not at all noticeable.

Coelogyne cristata, Lindl - The variety form
Coelogyne cristata Lindl – The variety form.

The Pursuit

Sir. George King and Robert Pantling reported about this variety in their monumental work. However, till date there was no mention of this variety anywhere. Thinking it is still there in the wild, I along with my friend from the village made several visits to the jungle where we found the species in abundance, everyday returning with a hope to find the variety. By the end of the season, we found a few rather huge pendulous clusters of white flowers relatively at a low altitude and in bloom. As it was around 20 feet high from the ground, we were not able to notice the lip colour. “No ways out, climb up the tree only”, commanded my friend. We both climbed that huge tree with the help of a rope encircled around it. He was the one who reached the tree top first and requested me in a very soft tone, “Swamiji, please go down and come up with your camera”, “I found what you were looking for”. Rest was something unimaginable, I reached the ground in hardly 2 seconds, picked up the camera and accessories went up the tree like an expert climber…… thanks I reached the top without a fall!!!!. Yes, it was the variety one, the one with pale yellow mid lobe or in many cases white itself. The flowers we got were also fresh, with no markings or dirt on its sepals and petals, thus producing this perfect photograph, for the first time.