Description
Dracula mopsus 'Chari'. Recently repotted blooming size plant in a 3" net pot.
This species produces small (about the size of a dime) flowers that truly have a monkey face! The flowers are cupped. The yellow sepals are covered with red splotches and are covered in short hairs around the margin. The lip (the monkey's nose) has a pink margin with a yellow center.
Each 4-6" flower spike will produce 1-3 flowers in succession over a period of a couple of months. The flower spikes will emerge from around the margin of the plant as well as out of the sides and bottom of the basket and the flowers face down. Must be hung because of the flowering habit.
Flowers (for us) late winter-late spring. May flower this year under ideal conditions but most likely will not flower until next year.
These plants are wonderful to own if you can give them what they want. Dracula culture is simple; cool, moist, and shady. Minimum low temp of 46 degrees F and a high of around 85. Anything over 80, keep the plant really wet. We like to water them morning and evening at least a couple of times a week in the summer. Folks with greenhouses that have swamp coolers grow them directly in front of the cooler. We give our plants lots of light in the winter and lots of shade in the summer. The nice thing about this group is if you can grow one Drac you can pretty much grow them all. Like their cousins the Masdevallias, when these plants are happy they grow like weeds and are prolific flowerers.
Here at Orchids For The People we love our Draculas! This group of orchids is one of the reasons the boss initially became interested in growing orchids. When a professor of his told the story of Dracula vampira, no one in the class believed anyone could give a plant such a crazy name. After a little research (this was before orchidspecies.com!) he found out low and behold there was such a thing. Thus began a twenty-year excursion through the orchid world.
