Specimen · N°020 · Mist
Nubivola pendula
Cloud-sea Orchid
Touching no soil, it blooms on a branch, drinking only the fog.
FOUND 13.2°S 71.5°W · Cloud forest of the Andes · ✝ EX · Last seen 2024
Touching no soil, it blooms on a branch, drinking only the fog.
An epiphyte 8–14 cm tall. Rooting in no soil, it winds slender roots around mossy branches and takes water from the drifting fog. It bears thick green leaves and small pale-lilac flowers that hang from the branch.
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Touching no soil, it blooms on a branch, drinking only the fog.
Its roots never once reach the ground.
The cloud forest of the Andes.
On mossy branches in a forest of ceaseless fog, the Cloud-sea Orchid grows as an epiphyte.
Thick green leaves spread as if hanging from the branch.
From between them, small pale-lilac flowers open.
