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Ipsea speciosa

Ipsea speciosa
Photo: Walter Hood Fitch (1817-1892) del. et lith. Description by Joseph Dalton Hooker (1817—1911), Public domain

Ipsea speciosa, the daffodil orchid, is a rare terrestrial orchid found only in the hills of Sri Lanka, with grass-like leaves and large bright yellow, sweet-scented flowers. Grow it as a cool-season terrestrial in bright, open grassland-type conditions with a distinct dry rest period.

Family
Orchidaceae (Orchid family)
Grows as
Grass, Orchid
Light
Part shade, Bright indirect
Water
Water freely while leaves are growing and flowering, then keep nearly dry during the dormant period.
Soil
Free-draining, humus-rich terrestrial orchid mix
Temperature
15-25 °C; protect below 10 °C
How easy
Hard
Native range
Sri Lanka
Climate
wet tropical

About

Ipsea speciosa, the daffodil orchid, is a rare wild orchid found only in the hills of Sri Lanka. It is a terrestrial herb with pseudobulbous stem. The lanceolate leaves of the plant are grass like and pointed at the end. Its large flowers appear from September to February, they are bright yellow and sweet-scented.

This plant can be seen in grass lands and pathana areas in mid hills of the country. The plant is known as නගා මැරූ අල in the Sinhala language, meaning "Yam which killed the little sister" according to a folk tale.

Other Ipsea plants

Malabar Daffodil Orchid · Ipsea

Text excerpted from the Wikipedia article Ipsea speciosa by its contributors, under CC BY-SA 4.0; the excerpts and the care summary drawn from them are shared under the same licence.

The care summary was written by AI (Claude, Anthropic) from the sources on this page, with general growing knowledge where they are silent. Check before relying on it.

Life form, climate and native range: World Checklist of Vascular Plants, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (CC BY 3.0), reformatted; see Plants of the World Online.

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