Yu Hudie (Yu Butterfly) Cymbidium goeringii: Variety Characteristics and Care Methods

Selected before the War of Resistance; it is said to originate from Lanxi, China, Zhejiang. In the early 1950s, it was collected from the mountains by the Yu family of mountain farmers, and after being taken away by Japanese buyers, it bloomed in Japan, and was thus named "Yu Hudie". After the 1980s it was sold back to mainland China. Leaves are 25-35cm long, the side leaves 1cm wide, the central leaves slender at 0.6cm, the leaf posture arching and drooping, with semi-mature seedlings having a fairly strong upright habit, and the leaf tips, occasionally with a concave inward-curling shape at the leaf center, the tips of old leaves curving and drooping, the leaf veins relatively flat, the leaf grooves relatively shallow, new leaves with inward-curling leaf margins, and old leaf margins rolling backward. The leaf color is yellow-green, the leaf margin serrations fine and dense, the veins deviating from the leaf center, the leaf texture soft, glutinous and smooth. On the underside of the leaf, on both sides of the midrib, there are multiple fine veins reaching the tip. New leaves have a glossy sheen, with leaf tips sharp as needles. The leaf base is tightly constricted, the pseudobulb round and large, and the leaves can reach seven or eight or more. New shoots when first emerging are white-green, gradually becoming pale green, with light purple markings, the bud sheaths having small white grains at the tips, and the new leaves also bearing small white grains, and even at the five-tenths growth stage, the leaf tips still bear small white grains. The leaf sheaths are slender and long, with relatively soft tips. When the flower bud first emerges, it goes from white at the base upward to pale green, then after exposure to sunlight turns green with a purple blush, with purple-red veining, and the bud tip also has small white grains, and the lower part of the flower bud gradually becomes round and swollen. Before flowering, the flower bud swells large, the close-fitting bud sheaths pale green with purple veins reaching the tip. The flower scape is green, thick and short, about 10-15cm. The outer whorl petals increase in number, spreading outward as broad bamboo-leaf petals, while the inner whorl petals layer upon layer, with no obvious lip petals or column, the inner whorl of the flower bearing countless tiny petals, the petal tips male-type and pale yellow, the petals occasionally showing tongue-like transformation, sometimes with red spots, and sometimes with incomplete tongue petals visible. The flower form is extremely large, reaching about 8cm, with two flowers per scape, occasionally three, the flower color emerald green with scattered red spots and pale yellow pouch-like small petals, truly difficult to count clearly. It can be called a butterfly-transformed chrysanthemum-petal flower, and sometimes it can also open in a "jade tree form".