Borneodaya: CORYMBORKIS VERATRIFOLIA

Sunday, 4 October 2020

CORYMBORKIS VERATRIFOLIA

I discovered this wonderful plant by scent as I was walking through the back of our over grown property. What a delightful scent waffing through the air, I noticed it 5 meters away, like a strong jasmine. It is tall plant with one stalk at 320 centimeters tall, which had just finished flowering. The other one was 190 centimeters tall and full of blooms. The size of that infloresence was about 36 centimeters, it was huge.

Being a newcomer to Sarawak and having much to learn about my new world of plants, I was stumped. Was it a lily or maybe an Angraecum orchid of some sort? I took photos with my phone cam and of I went to research my diamond. I poured over my orchid and plant books to no avail then turned to the net. Again nothing. Hating to admit defeat, I reached out to Sarawak Biodiversity as well as iNature and thankfully they provided the answer for me, Corymborkis veratrifolia, a terrestrial orchid. So thank you both for your help.

All the photos I have seen so far on the net seem to have smaller plants and infloresence, I have yet to see one this tall. Made my day.

UPDATE OCT. 5, 2020

Went out to take a look at the orchid to see if it was still in leaf or starting to decay. To my surprise it was in great shape. A closer inspection showed that the plant was in bud and was going to flower again. I decided to measure the two flower stalks, the taller one was 326 centimeters and the shorter one was 198 centimeters, still growing.