What kind of orchid is Shenzhou Qimo Lan? An introduction to its variety characteristics

Plant characteristics, flowers upon flowers

The Shenzhou Qi plant is tall, with leaves 45-50cm long, leaf shape curved-drooping to semi-drooping, leaf color green and glossy, medium leathery texture, thick and glutinous leaf quality, broad leaves about 3cm. Leaf tips bluntly tapered, most leaf tips slightly twisted; on the back of the midrib at the leaf tip there are tiny, almost imperceptible fine teeth; leaf margins mostly smooth, with leaf teeth only near the leaf tail. New shoots are green with a slight purplish-red, and the first and second bud sheaths spread outward like extra little finger shapes, which is called "scattered sheaths."

The flowering period of Shenzhou Qi is somewhat late, from March to May. Its flower scape is especially tall, rising far above the leaves, with the great momentum of overpowering all other flowers and ruling the world. The flowers it produces are a "branched" inflorescence; on the main flower scape grow more than ten small flower branches, and each branch in turn produces multiple ovaries, multiple sepals, and multiple petals. The appearance of Shenzhou Qi broke the pattern of Chinese orchids having one scape with one flower, and to this day it remains unique among Cymbidium sinense.

Its main characteristics are described in detail as follows:

Branching upon the flower. When each branch (flower) opens, on the first node of the flower stalk grow more than ten petals, curled like strips, and on the flower grow a second layer of 2-5 bud branches; when the second-layer buds open, a third layer of 1-2 buds grows on the flower. In this way, a single flower can have 3-6 small flowers, and a single scape of Shenzhou Qi can bear more than thirty or even more small flowers, layer upon layer, opening in succession like a pagoda shape; its colors are green outside and yellow inside, with purplish-red in many places on the lip, colorful as if a hundred flowers were blooming together.

Especially many petals. This flower itself belongs to the many-petaled strange flowers; when the first layer of buds opens, the inner and outer petals together already reach about 20; when the second layer of buds opens, someone once carefully picked them open and counted, and the large and small petals together reached more than 80. If the plant is robust and several connected seedlings are allowed to bloom freely, it is truly like a fiery tree and silver flowers, extraordinarily lively.

Tall flower form. The flower stalk reaches about 1m high, and the small flower stalk (ovary) of each branch (flower) is also especially long, generally about 15cm; when the first layer of buds opens, the flower height is about 20cm, when the second layer of buds opens, the flower height reaches 25cm, and when the third layer of buds opens, the whole flower may reach 30cm, extremely beautiful and spectacular.

Especially long flowering period. Because Shenzhou Qi blooms layer upon layer and opens gradually by layers, its flowering period is even longer than that of ordinary Cymbidium sinense strange flowers, reaching 3-4 months. In addition, Shenzhou Qi has a clear and quiet fragrance, far more fragrant than ordinary Cymbidium sinense, and during such a long flowering period it can send forth fragrance continuously, which is truly rare and precious.