Common Name: The Wind Orchid
Scented: yes, nocturnal
Light Requirements: partial sun
Temperature Requirements: cool to intermediate
Blooms: early summer to autumn
Flower Size: 3cm
Synonyms: Aerides thunbergii Miq. 1866; Angorchis falcata (Lindl.) Kuntze 1891; Angraecopsis falcata (Lindl.) Schltr. 1914; Angraecum falcatum [Thunb.]Lindley 1821; Finetia falcata [Thunb.]Schlechter 1817; Holcoglossum falcatum [Thunb.]Garay 1972; Limodorum falcatum Sw 1799; Nipponorchis falcata [Thunb.]Masamune 1934; Oeceoclades falcata [Thunb.]Lindley 1833; Oeceoclades lindleyi Regel 1866; *Orchis falcata Thunb. 1784; Orchis fuciflora Crantz 1769; Vanda falcata (Thunb.) Beer 1854
From Japan, Korea and the Ryukyu Islands, it is a warm to cool grower, found in areas that have shady summers, and because of the deciduous trees that they grow on, almost full sun in the winter, with a short, monopodial, complanate stem enveloped basally by conduplicate leaf bases carrying coriaceous, distichous, fleshy, conduplicate, linear-falcate leaves that blooms on a racemose, axillary, to 7cm long, laxly several flowered inflorescence that appears in early summer through fall with nocturnal, fragrant flowers. Best mounted on tree fern or cork here in warm conditions yet it can be done in suspended pots with a very coarse mixture to allow air to get to the roots. The plant is a small, monopodial, vandaceous plant that is under 12.5cm tall.