Among the most memorable times in Udaipur for Swati and I were the weekend trips we undertook with Dr. Anil and Dr. Satish Sharma. These trips covered protected forests, grasslands, sacred groves, streams within the Aravalli valleys, and community conserved areas.
A perk of such trips was the deep knowledge both individuals had of the plants of the region. One of these trips was exclusively to see if the Tall Shield Orchid Nervillia aragoan had flowered.
The Aravalli mountains are a tough sell for most plants, let alone tubers that need some soil. Most areas have shallow soils, but this is adequate for the ground orchid Dr. Satish wanted to show us. It had been drizzling on and off for a few days, and conditions, we were told, were perfect for the orchid to emerge.
After a long drive from Udaipur city, we stopped beside a grove of trees. Dr. Satish led us to the shade of of these tall trees where he knew these orchids lay buried. As we approached the slope, his face burst into a beaming smile. The orchid flowers were bobbing in the gentle breeze that had caught up with us.
Green flowers were not what I was expecting, but the grace and delicacy the colouration brought to the orchids were nothing short of spectacular. The stems were short and held half a dozen or so flowers each. From the front, the "orchid" nature of the flowers became obvious.
The tinge of purple around the rim was magnificent. Some bees roamed around the flowers, but we could not see any obvious ones that were pollinators of these flowers during our short stay.
However, the pollinators had been doing their job. Green fruits and riper fruits hung on some of the stalks telling of orchids that had flowered earlier than our visit.
Like in many ground orchids, the leaves of Nervillia aragoana emerge after the fruiting is complete. Each flowering stalk is followed by a single folded-up leaf. Several of these neat structures poked through the ground all around us. Leaves were unfolding and were in various states, including the neat fully opened single leaves. I would not have known that this was an orchid!
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