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A Special Butterfly

© Linda Fortner

I am so excited this month to tell you about the beautiful butterfly I have flying around in the Orchid Garden. This is not a ordinary butterfly that you would see flying from flower to flower all summer long however. My butterfly is a very special orchid nicknamed "The Butterfly Orchid," the fantastic Psychopsis papilio. This spectacular orchid is not only beautiful to look at, it also does something all orchid growers want all orchids to do ... it can CONTINUOUSLY bloom for YEARS!

For many years this species was listed as Oncidium papilio and some of you still may find some a specimen with a tag that lists it as an Oncidium. It was finally officially placed into the Psychopsis genus which was originally recommended in 1838 by Rafinesque. There are five species currently found in this genus; kramerianum, papilio, sanderae, versteegiana, and limminghei. (the valid inclusion of limminghei is still debated). The change in this genus has been slow, so many of these are still referenced under Oncidium. Another related ( and often confused genus) is Psycopsiella. Maybe some day everyone will agree where these butterflies belong.

The species are naturally wide spread from Trinidad to Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Panama. The foliage of these species is very different from other orchids. The leaves look like donkey ears. They are very stiff, rough in texture, and are dull red or grayish green in color. The inflorescence can reach heights up to 150 cm tall, are jointed and flat. These spikes can remain active for many years producing one flower at a time in succession, a dream of every one that grows orchids.

The spectacular flower is the reason it is called "The Butterfly Orchid." It looks like a butterfly with a large brightly colored body, very long antennas, and wings barred with yellow and rust brown. When you first see one of these amazing flowers, you may not imagine any flower could look like this. The flower is around 12.5 to 15 cm in size and is produced from the apex of the inflorescence. The bloom will last up to three weeks. When the flower dies, a new one is produced to take its place forming a permanent display.

NEVER CUT the inflorescence off unless they are totally brown and dead. I had a snail chew off my flower spike and I was just devastated. This was the first time for this particular orchid to bloom. I did not remove the remainder of the inflorescence and in a few weeks I noticed it had branched off the side and was growing again. It is now ready to bloom in just a few more weeks.

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