Rudolfiella aurantiaca 'Sea of Tranquility'

Rudolfiella aurantiaca is a now rare species from the Rio Negro area in Brazil. It has beautifully shaped pseudobulbs with speckled pseudobulbs and stiff short Stanhopea like leaves. The slightly fragrant flowers are yellow with reddish mahogany markings and are borne on curved, upright to pendulous flower spikes.

This particular plant was collected by Raymond McCullough (Past president of the American Orchid Society) in Brazil (pre CITES) on July 20th 1969 while listening to the Apollo 11 Mission on his transistor radio. He was in a canoe at the time and collected it from a tree overhanging a river. Jerry Fischer visited him and his greenhouses in the Late 1980's and the story was told to him personally at that time. We have been growing this species for many years learning about the best way to grow and flower it. We now have just a few divisions of it available for sale for the first time. These are well grown specimens.

This plant likes medium to bright semi-shaded light and intermediate to warm temperatures. Water as the substrate just dries out. It is normal for this species to have pigment spots on the pseudobulbs and to have a few small black spots in the leaves. Some bulbs will be without leaves . See Photos.