Geodorum densiflorum

Species of the Month

Geodorum densiflorum (Lam.) Schltr. (= Limodorum densiflorum) 

An interesting terrestrial species and known as densely flowered Geodorum. The name Geodorom is from the Greek ‘geo’ meaning earth and ‘dorom’ meaning gift. It has a wide distribution throughout tropical and subtropical Asia and West pacific.  Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Hong Kong, Indonesian islands, Malaysia, Moluccas, Sulawesi, Philippines, New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Australia, Fiji, and Taiwan are some of the countries of occurrence.

In South India, the plant is distributed in Western Ghats, Madikeri, Kudremukh, Gulbarga, Mysore Hassan, Uttara Kannada, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra.

Geodorum densiflorum (Lam.) Schltr. is an endangered terrestrial orchid (Datta et al., 1999).
Works on in vitro propagation has been done in India.

Habitat and Plant:  The plant is a medium to small size terrestrial orchid its habitat is in the grasslands, and rainforests as well as semi-deciduous and deciduous dry lowland forests and savana-like woodlands at elevations from sea level to 1800 meters. It is a medium sized, hot to warm growing terrestrial with underground, spherical pseudobulbs carrying, 2 to 5, and thin-textured, petiolate leaves. The plant grows during spring and summer and becomes deciduous in winter. The plant blooms in India in the months of April – May. The inflorescence is erect; to begin with many clustered flowers and drooping downward. The inflorescence has a characteristic ‘Umbrella handle’ shape. Flowers are pinkish white or white with purple lip and dark streaks.

Pollination of the flowers is by local bees. Propagation is mainly by seeds and the capsule develops in a pendant pattern after fertilisation.

Culture: The plant undergoes resting period and produce new leaves in spring and flowers in summer. They need resting period during winter. After the new leaves emerge, feed the plants with a complete fertiliser like 19:19:19.

No natural hybrids have been reported.

References
1.    Ananda Rao. T and Sridhar.S., 2007. Wild Orchids of Karnataka: A pictorial compendium. Institute of Natural Resources Conservation, Education, Research and Training (INCERT), Bangalore, India.
2.    Datta, K.B., Kanjilal, B and Desarker, D.1999. Artificial seed technology: Development of protocol in Geodorom densiflorum (Lam.) Schltr. An endangered orchid. Current Science.76:1142-1145.
3.    Sheelavanthmath, S.S.,Murthy, H.N., Pyati.A.N., Ashok Kumar, H.G and Ravishanker, B.V.2000. In vitro propagation of the endangered orchid, Geodorom densiflorum (Lam.) Schltr. through rhizome section culture. Plant cell, tissue and organ culture. 60:2:151-154

Article contributed by : Dr. K. S. Shashidhar