The dancing starts a little ahead of noon when breeze rises from the Olavipe Lake. The yellow skirted ‘girls’ begin moving in rhythm. The tempo picks up as the wind becomes stronger. The performance continues till sunset when the breeze dies down.
I am talking about the orchids known as Dancing Girls/Lady. The Latin name is oncidium splendidum. It is also called Golden Shower orchid. What we have at Olavipe is yellow. The sprays of yellow and brown flowers are small and give an image of dancing girls in skirts. Given below is a photo I took recently.
Click on image for enlarged viewFeel the flowers are out of focus? I think differently. Most of the photos of orchids I looked up were cut flowers or still plants. When I took this picture the girls were dancing in the strong afternoon breeze. Perhaps that resulted in the ethereal impression. I consider it is appropriate and brings out the spirit of the dancing girls.
Oncidiums are easy to grow and do not require a great deal of care. Our Dancing girls are potted in dried coconut husk filled with broken clay tiles and charcoal. They are hung on the coconut palm seen on the left of the photo. Watering and indirect sunlight are required. It has tolerance to altitudes and temperatures.
Have a few Dancing Girls at home. They are beautiful.
Ends.
Also see:
Photos: Flowers from Switzerland
2 comments:
What a beautiful description of the day-long dance. And such an appropriate name.
I had some silk ones (my sister-in-law from Sinagapore had brought them) which looked a lot like the real ones - but they could not dance!
Raji, that's a very nice comment. Thanks.
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