The Taiwanese Orchid Tree

This Orchid Tree on the Taiwan Orchid Growers Association stand at Chelsea was made up of orchids in test tubes that were attached to a bare tree.

The lighter coloured orchid is Doritaenopsis Tai Lin Moon. Doritaenopsis is a cross between two related genera, Doritis and Phalaenopsis, which are so closely related that Doritis has been reclassified as Phalaenopsis, meaning that neither Doritis nor Doritaenopsis officially exist, but the name is used anyway.

The darker orchid is Phalaenopsis Nobby’s Pink Lady, a large-flowered hybrid. Phalaenopsis are sometimes called the Moth Orchid, because their flowers supposedly resemble moths in flight.

I quite liked this idea of growing plants in test tubes....or at least putting small cut flowers into a rack of test tubes. You can see interesting examples on this search page.