Aerides houlletiana

Aerides houlletiana is a species native to Southeast Asia. It is vandaceous in plant habit with short thick leaves that are 2 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches in length. The genus Aerides is closely related to the genus Vanda , and shares the same ecological requirements and the structure of green body parts: an elongated stem that keeps growing at the end bears two thick rows of firm and resistant succulent foliage.The smallish flowers grow in multiple ,thick , overhanging, cylindrical racemes and are very richly colored .The flower lip is equipped with a conical ,spur -shaped protuberance that is usually bent forward .Cultivating the botanical species, and also some hybrids,of the genus Aerides is traditional mainly in the United States ; in European collections,the Aerides are very rarely found .The plants are grown in a similar way as in the case of the genus Vanda. They require a warm to very warm environment with a maximum possible amount of diffused light ,relatively infrequent misting and very good ventilation.Intermediate to warm with winter night time lows in the low to mid 60’s and daytime highs in the low 70’s or higher summer temps can be several degrees warmer.

Ideal seems to be cultivation in small wooden baskets with a handful of coarse epiphytic substrate inside . The succulent structure of Aerides argues their ability to resist drought, which enables them to thrive when open -grown in well-lighted apartments. The genus Aerides includes over 60 orchid species ( the species A . houlletiana in the photograph is an examble), growing epiphytically or on rocks . The flowers are borne on dense many-flowered racemes and colored in creamy white, yellow and magenta. There is a wonderful fragrance of Citrus and spice. The flowers last one and a half to two months. These asian orchids have a very wide area of occurrence : it reaches up to Southern China and New Guinea in the northeast , although most species can be found in the Himalayas ,Burma ,the Phillipines and Indonesia.