Introduction and Appreciation Points of the Millennium Dragon Butterfly Cymbidium goeringii Variety

At the 2000 orchid gala held in Hangzhou, China - the 10th National Orchid Expo, a pot of my new Cymbidium goeringii flower "Qiande Longdie" was awarded an Excellence Award by the judges. 

Millennium Dragon Butterfly is a new Cymbidium goeringii flower collected in 1996 from the Xikou mountain area of Fenghua City, Zhejiang Province. After five years of cultivation and appreciation, this kind of Cymbidium goeringii is a rare inner-butterfly wonder flower, with stable traits and easy flowering. 

The roots of Millennium Dragon Butterfly are thick, short and sturdy, and the pseudobulbs are onion-shaped and inconspicuous. Each plant has four or five leaves; the buds are slightly red; there are two leaf sheaths, and the taller one reaches 60mm, hard and slightly red. The leaf bases form a row, overlapping left and right in a V shape up to the halfway point; the upper leaves are slightly flatter, 8mm wide, slanting at 80 degrees, and the leaf tips are arched at 45 degrees into sharp points; there are few leaves slanting at 45 degrees. The leaf blades are firm, stiff and leathery, dark green in color, and glossy. The leaf serrations are rough and very obvious from tip to base. The leaves are 25cm to 35cm long. 

The flowers mostly send up scapes from outside the leaf sheaths of the previous year's growth with five leaves. There are generally five bracts; the scape is pale red; the bracts are green with red veins and are also rather hard. The scape is 10cm to 15cm tall. 

Millennium Dragon Butterfly is a large-flowered type. The flower spread is 70mm; the sepals are emerald green, thick and glutinous, spreading in a triangular shape; the main sepal is 10mm wide, slightly leaning back and compact; the lateral sepals are 8mm wide, curling slightly backward, with a posture like wind drifting; the red veins are fine and clear, but not obvious. The most prominent point is that the petals are obvious, like spread butterfly wings. Among pistil butterflies this is very rare: the broad waist is 15mm, the lower half is transformed into a distinct white interspersed with red, and the upper part is green. In particular, the white butterfly-transformed part has one red dot on each of the left and right sides, which can be compared to a pair of eyes, and the two petals are extremely dynamic. Viewed from the front, the whole flower looks quite like a dragon head: the green petals resemble dragon horns, the central column resembles a top bead, and the broad white lip hangs down and curls backward, with a bright red ingot-shaped spot; the backward-curling lateral sepals can be compared to dragon whiskers. At first sight, the whole flower is bright and eye-catching, with dragons flying and phoenixes dancing, inspiring fascination. This year is the Year of the Dragon, AD 2000, so it was named "Millennium Dragon Butterfly."