Cooktown Orchid

Appearance

This beautiful orchid is closely related to several other species of flowers known as vappodes now listed in "Vappodes" and readily forms hybrids, which are now described under the "named hybrid genus" X"Vappaculum".

The colour of the flowers varies from pinkish-mauve to lavender or purple and sometimes almost white, with the base of the labellum being a much darker purple.

The plants can grow up to 80 cm in height. The flowers are on canes 10–40 cm long. Flowering time is usually in the dry season between March and July; but sometimes all year in commercial cultivation. The flowers are on racemes 200–400 mm long and are usually lilac-purple, but can be bluish or even white and sometimes pinkish with darker purple labellum without a white spot.

Habitat

It lives in a wide variety of habitats ranging from coastal scrub on trees and rocks, to mangroves, riverine vegetation, rainforest, vine thickets, gullies in open forest and even swamps. It used to be prolific around Cooktown but is now rare in the wild, due to over-collecting by commercial collectors. It is now listed as vulnerable by the EPBC Act.

Uses

Likes a dry, sunny position with a minimum of watering and a temperature not below 13°C. Needs a bush-house in cooler climates. Cultivated plants often have much larger flowers than those in the wild.