Gastrochilus sororius

Description

The genus Gastrochilus was first described in the 1800’s and was so named for its flowers:  “gaster” referring to the stomach and “cheilos” referring to the showy lip.  Sounds appetizing, yes?  The genus is composed of approximately 52 species of miniature monopodial orchids that are vanda relatives and look somewhat like little phals or Aerangis.  Plants can be grown in pots in a loose mix but are much better grown mounted and watered regularly.  With essentially no water storage organs, Gastrochilus does not like to dry out for long.  Most species can tolerate cool temperatures, and all of them do well growing intermediate to warm, moderate to low light (I go for low).  See more about Gastrochilus from the AOS.

Gastrochilus sororius, the closely related Gastrochilus, is an intermediate to warm-growing miniature species from Malaysia, Borneo, and New Guinea that produces clusters of yellow flowers with strong burgundy spotting and white lips with finer cherry speckles.  The lip also has some cool fringe! You can really see the “belly” of these flowers.  Like other Gastrochilus, these are easy to grow and excellent bloomers.

Blooming size plants