A Trip to Chitou

I took my family to Chitou(溪頭) for a trip last weekend. Chitou, meaning "creek head" in Chinese, is a beautiful plantation forest in central Taiwan, not very far from a famous tea town, Luku(鹿谷), or the deer valley. I've been to Chitou a couple of times, and I like it so much that I even spent a few days of my honeymoon over there. I recall that I purchased an orchid, Cym. ensifolium on that particular trip. It is still in my garden, and it spikes every year.

Well, I must say that Chitou has a lot of changes since some twenty years ago when I first went there. But the changes are delightful. As I can see, my daughter loves it much the same way I loved it twenty years ago.

The trees are tall, green, and beautiful, though wild orchids are not as much as they were. But I still found some, to my surprise.

Nowadays, it is very easy to go to Chitou from Taipei. It takes only three hours or so by car. I left Taipei 8:30 in the morning and got there before noon. That's something impossible before. I shall go there every so often.

Cym. dayanum

Bulbophyllum pectinatum

Liparis elliptica

Phaius tankervilleae

Beautiful Phalaenopsis

I like Phalaenopsis. With butterfly-like flowers hanging sweetly on the spikes, the Phalaenopsis always exuberates a sense of joy. I grow a lot of Phalaenopsis. Every time they spike, I can not help but take a lot of pictures for them and for other orchids.

These flowers are not mine, of course.

Please enjoy.









I also have some pictures of other orchids.

The Flower of Chikushi

The Flower of Chikushi(筑紫之華) is a variety of Cymbidium sinense(報歲蘭). The location and time it was found are still unknown today. But one thing can be sure, it was not from Chikushi.

There are white lines called "art"(藝) on its leaves. The "arts" has various patterns. Usually, the pattern of this variety is called "nakahu"(中斑). That means the white or yellow lines are located in the inner part of the leaves, while the outer part of the leaves, especially the tip of the leave is green.


The Flower of Chikushi has a strange property. If a young shoot starts growing in spring time, its leaves will all be ordinary green, no white lines on those leaves. But if the young shoots start growing in autumn, then, it will have splendid and flashy leaves. People consider its "art" unstable and therefore The Flower of Chikushi is inexpensive.

But I think this property is quite interesting. The combination of green shoots and "art" shoots makes them easier to grow and let the whole plant look more beautiful. Further more, sometimes, there are also "arts" on its flowers, and the pattern is "nakahu" as well. But not every flower of it has "arts". Sometimes, you can see different types of flower on a scape.


Twenty years ago, people think that these "arts" can not be reproduced by pollination . Nowadays, some people have shown that if the female parent has "art", then there may be some chances to have "art" offspring.

We still don't know the exact mechanism. But it is interesting, and I have tried to make one pollinated. So, let's see what's going to happen several years later, no kidding.

The last picture shows the flowers of an ordinary Cym. sinense.