I am an orchid crazy person from Pathanamthitta. For nearly 25 years I have been growing orchids. Growing orchid species is very challenging when compared with growing hybrids. I am more into species.

 Kerala, with its lush green forests and high humidity levels, is ideal for orchids. Numerous varieties of natural orchids are seen all around us. But for a layman like me, the details of most of them are unknown. Some extensive works had been done in the past by the eminent botanists like late Dr. Abraham, Valsala, Dr. Sathish and so on  in this field and details are described in the language of the taxonomists ( which is like a foreign language to me) and  the photographs of most of them are not available.

Ofcourse, the photographs of some very popular orchids like Rhyncostylis retusa, Cymbedium bicolor, Vanda tessellata, the world famous Paphiopedillum druryii etc are available in the internet nowadays. Recently I came across a blog by Mr.Prejith Sampath from Kozhikkode with photographs of some of the native species. He is doing a commendable job in popularising the orchids of Western Ghats.

Hence I too, in my humble way, am trying to share some of my experience and photos with you. Most of the photographs are taken by my mother as I am staying abroad. So please don't expect any professional quality in the photos. Please consider them from the information point of view only. Whenever better photographs become available, I'll update them.

Please forgive me for any of my mistakes as I am an engineer and not a botanist. So please feel free to correct  me when I am wrong. That way I can also update my knowledge base . . .

Jose