How many times a day do you fall in love?  The Plant Provocateur falls an awful lot. It's usually the most unusual things that do it.  A quick glance and boom.  Direct hit. In this particular case, it's the architecture and the detail.  Combine that with the simplicity of color and you have something intoxicating.  Filigree, curls, long lashes of form.  Such is the case of Epidendrum parkinsonianum, a pendulous provocateur of orchid perfection.  Seeing this orchid live and in concert is like seeing an exquisitely handcrafted pair of shoes or a drop dead gorgeous luxury car for the first time.  It's got what it takes to make you fall in love.  A love that is mysterious.  When it's in bloom, it lures you in with its perplexing tassel-like flowers.  So simple.  So elegant.  Yet they make you wonder how beauty can constantly transform itself into something so awe inspiring.

Epidendrum parkinsonianum further captures a mysterious essence with its interestingly pendulous succulent foliage.  It hangs down in lucsciously long lithe rivulets of green.  As plants add more foliage the look becomes that of a fountain-like cascade of tantalizingly rich green texture.  On closer inspection, the flowers take on a slightly wicked silhouette.  Its column with frayed anther cap resembles the teeth of something wild.  Delicate danger that exhilarates and  brings further excitement to the experience.

Epidendrum parkinsonianum comes to us from the forests of Central America. Plants can grow into 6 foot long cascades of green showering foliage.  In spring and summer, it produces falling star bursts of greenish white flowers with yellow detail. Flowers dangle out from the foliage and when the sun goes down they emit a delicate, yet subtle perfume.  When plants get large and produce many flowers it is such an arrestingly beautiful sight to see.  Epidendrum parkinsonianum like shaded conditions with bright ample light.  When they receive lots of light foliage tends to take on rich purple tones.  During the warmer months, water this orchid daily either by dunking it or dousing it.  In cooler months cut back to 3 to 4 times a week.  Use distilled water.  Tap water contains minerals that can burn roots.  As for temperature, this orchid thrives in temps between 50 and 95 degrees fahrenheit/10 and 35 degrees celsius.  If you live where temperatures get cooler consider bringing this orchid inside to enjoy its unstoppable exotica.  So, what's not to love?   Unique orchid loveliness. Check. Exotica overload.  Check.  Love mysterious.  Check!