Finding Treasure: Mandirola ichthyostoma

I was just wandering down to my plant room *wander, wander, and I thought I spotted a color that I hadn't seen before. Who could resist running right over to see what it might be?

I took the dome off one of the trays of plants and I almost didn't know what to do! I found this really excellent, fringed and lovely orchid-colored flower that I simply did not recognize. The camera came out even before I knew what I was going to be taking a photo of.

 I had to untangle a couple of stems but I brought it out and read what was written on the pot. It said that the seeds were started two years ago! Looking back, the seedlings had been very small at first, and I thought they might have tiny rhizomes but the pot only had one or two little stems that didn't do much initially. Nothing much seemed to be going on so it got left and ignored for another year. It's sort of amazing that it wasn't tossed accidentally because not much had been happening.

But now.... the rhizomes must have re-sprouted and grown into a pretty good looking plant. It's got bloom spikes that should make quite a nice display too.

The blooms are large and good looking. I'm finding the fringed look rather charming as well.

I initially misspelled Mandirola with the 'i' in the wrong place and Google couldn't find it. Turns out even with the right spelling there isn't much information easily available either. It is also known as Gloxinia ichthyostoma.

Questions???

Comments???