Several genera was apparently moved into Vanda last year.  Just found out about it.  Made some changes on the website.

entire article found here

I can't help but simply admire how Flora of China is.  It's exhaustive, it's detailed, it's very organized.  I have started citing them extensively as a result.

Can't help but wish that our government here in the Philippines had that much funding to make something like that here in the Philippines.  It would be AWESOME.

Check out the online portal of Flora of China here.

Mt.. Madjaas at 2113 meters high, is the tallest peak in Panay island. 


 after a two hour trip from Catiklan, we arrived in Culasi town. we went to the tourism office of Mr. John Sumanting. located on the second floor of the culasi public market. there we had to pay a 150 per person fee for permission to access the mountain. we also had to check in with the local police.  the tourism office called for transportation ( in this case two motorcycles ). we then bought supplies in the market for us and the guides and porters. after a 30 or so minute ride on dirt road we arrived at our starting point, Brgy flores. where the motorcyles took us to the house of our guide Josue. 

the climb started easy enough, at 400m brgy flores, is the closes point to access the mountain. the trail was arduous, and very often steep. on the trail we saw Spathoglottis kimbaliana var. antiquense  

a beautiful terrestrial orchid growing amidst the cogon fields. also amonst the trail was Paphiopedillum Hennisianum and Impatients with a very long spur. we also nibbled on some berries ( Rubus rosifolius ). much like strawberries. At around 4pm we arrived at the campsite located 1100 m. 
                                                      THE CLOUD FOREST
At this level, everything was covered in moss & orchids. species like bulbophyllum, thelasis and dendrochilium.  so where the jewel orchids. common on the ground.

We stayed overnight near a water source at 1100 m

the next day, we woke up early and tried to reach 1800m
amonst the trees I found several liparis ( stichorchis ) philippinense one of which was flowering .

with the thousands of Dendrochilum plants growing we only saw one that was blooming , Dendrochilum hastetum 

by the time we arrived at 1400m I was tired and decided to stay behind, I told the Bulbophyllum expert to go ahead and try reaching 1800m. while i was resting, i still was looking for terrestrial orchids, which can be confusing because some orchids which where normally epiphytes are growing as terrestrials in this mossy forest. like this Appendicula luzonensis

at 1200 til 1400 m we found 

The bulbophyllum expert came back, saying he didn't reach 1800, because the 1400m level is large. but he did mention he saw nepentes sp. on the way back to camp we saw orchids we missed like

Ever since I put in thumbnails of species for a specific section, I've been hooked to the idea.  I like to find similarities in the species under a genus and sections make a lot of sense.

One such genus that we just recently discovered had sections was Aerides.  The problem is, it's as complicated as the typical taxonomical exercise!

There are the original sections, then other sections, then new proposed sections based on microscopic stuff.

Unfortunately no one has come to a conclusion (as far as I know) on what to use so I've left the idea of dividing the Aerides for Philippines into sections behind.

Just as the title says, I've been updating the thumbnails of all genera and I got stuck with Cirrhopetalum.

The question was, whether I should make it its own genus, or put it back into Bulbophyllum

After this article I found in RHS's site, I'll put it back into Bulbophyllum.  Didn't really explain why, but official enough to let me know I should definitely put it back into Bulbophyllum if I want to maintain some sort of standards to how this site judges whether genera are official or not..

Reactions?  Are you all as confused about this as I am?

And i'm only really writing about bulbophyllums because I've been working on the Philippine genus page of that genus for two days now.  There's a LOT.  I shudder to think about the day I have to make all the Bulbos of other countries...

But it's interesting to see that it's making a lot of sense to have divided it further to sections.  I see the point of having sections now.  Judging from all the thumbnails of the species, they all (evidently) share a common trait.

For example, the section Leopardinae has all the normal flowery looking ones (by my old standards, "flowery" came close to what I drew when told to draw a flower:  a small circle with loops bouncing all around it).

Like I said in the About page, we're no scientists.  So we're encountering all this as if it's something really new.

I'll be working on Leptopus next.  Unfortunately I don't have enough time to really go into detail for the species like I did with Abdominea minimifolia (bit proud of that page) but eventually, I'll get to finish all this.

We were on a crepidium-run when we found a huge plant. this being our first time to actually 
see this type of orchid, Raab and I argued a bit about what it was until we came to a conclusion it was a specimen of Neuwiedia 

Which is coincidental since we were discussing this genera last night.  The question on “what makes an orchid an orchid” was the question and we both came to an agreement it has something to do mostly with the flowers.



Does anyone know what this is?  Click the image for a larger view