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Last Update:

06/19/2008

Desert Room Epiphyte Room Fern Room  General Display  Head house 

Outdoor Gardens Propagation Room Research Room Tropical Room

Epiphyte room. The room contains many common orchids as well as unusual bromeliads such as Pineapple and Spanish moss. A misting system maintains a relatively high humidity on the north side over the orchids. In this room we keep orchids and bromeliads.  The north side contains our orchids which sit under a automated mister which maintains high humidity.  On the south side of the room are the bromeliads.  These do not require frequent misting, but require water within their central "cup."  If you have been to the southern states, you will recognize the Spanish moss.

1. Epiphytes - plants that grow upon other plants but do not parasitize them.  Moisture and nutrients are from the atmosphere.

2. High humidity - warm temperatures.

Plants to point out:

Bromeliads - vase plants

Pineapple - The pineapple’s origin is thought to be in Brazil. It was praised by early European visitors as the finest of all fruit and shipped back to the Old World. The leaf rosettes can be up to 30 in high and 4 ft wide. The sword-shaped leaves of recent cultivars have smooth leaves.  Wild types had leaves edged with tiny thorns. Ananas comosus has a flower up to 12 in long with yellow to red bracts and grows up to 4 ft tall when in fruit. Fruit occurs in the second year if conditions are suitable.

Spanish moss - Tillandsia usneoides is a rootless perennial grows up to 3 ft tall. Inconspicuous, tubular, greenish yellow or pale blue flowers appear in summer and are almost hidden among the foliage. Slender, drooping, branched stems bear the leaves, which are densely covered in silvery white scales.

Orchids - most highly evolved angiosperms co-evolved with animal pollinators.

Vanilla orchid - Vanilla is the fruit of the orchid Vanilla fragrans harvested before it is fully ripe; then it is fermented and cured. The greenish flowers are about 2 inches across. The fruits (pods) are about 6 to 9 inches long and usually referred to as vanilla beans. The vanilla plants starts producing fruit only when it is mature, generally larger than 10 feet.