| PAPHIOPEDILUM |
| Lady's slippers or paphs, have always been my favourite orchids. I started growing orchids with a couple of insignes, they are endemic to Meghalaya (I thought that they were pitcher plants then!) The mad rush for books followed next. The places where they grow, besides shrinking day by day, are at the same time becoming inaccessible - isolated clumps clinging on to the south eastern cliffs of Meghalaya. Their inaccessibility have, upto now, safegaurded their survival. Old folks talk about the good old days when hillsides were plastered with them! They said that when it was flowering time the sight could be likened to a swarm of butterflies fluttering their wings in the breeze! It was easy picking then and eventually these hillsides were stripped clean. |
| It was on the 9 th Nov 1999 that I decided against attending a wedding. I opted for the hunt. The site selected was some 90 odd kms away from Shillong with the last 25 kms being kutcha/unmetalled road. We, the driver and I, left early and reached the village at around 10 AM. Our guide, Bah Nolin, was there to greet us. After a brief snack, we started and the 45 mins walk on top of the plateau was pleasant. I took some snaps - the landscape was barren with pockets of forest cover only on the slopes. |
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| Not having the experience nor the gear to scale down the cliffs, I literally envied the people who had the oppurtunity of seeing P. insigne in the wild. It reached a stage where I started dreaming of effortlessly scaling down the rocks and being with my orchids. Most of my dreams were about P. insigne but there were times when a weird combination of F. C. Puddle with fairrieanum laterals featured! Bizarre!? Obsessed!? Possessed?! (call it what you like) ACTION - That's what the dreams brought to my envy-filled life. There I was with the map of Meghalaya and through wild, no, calculated (ahem) guesses marked out the likely insigne spots - leaving out the known inaccessible ones. There must be some other easier sites I surmised. Bansan, my friend, was kind enough to loan his jeep and I made many fruitless trips. I consoled myself with the shots I took of Phaius tankervillae, dendrobes, pitcher plants etc. |
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| The descent down was tough. After half an hour, my knees started knocking and I felt my heart pumping furiously. Never thought that going down could be such a torture. Skepticism crept in - the hillslope was north facing and the book says that insigne loves the S. E slopes! Came across Phaius tankervillae first and I hated it then since earlier whenever I spotted the nun orchid Nepenthes khasiana inevitably followed. Boy, oh boy! Is this going to be logged as unsuccessful too? These thoughts raced through my mind. Then came jewel orchids and I found the best way to travel down - sit and slide! (The undergrowths and bushes served as checks and breaks!) Suddenly, Bah Nolin, the guide, shouted - he was ahead or rather way down below. My heart pounded and I hobbled down as fast as I dared. Insigne seedlings clinging to near vertical surfaces with moss ccvered roots greeted me! But the best was yet to come - 10 metres down was the most beautiful sight that beats my wildest dreams! It was an "insigne garden in the wild"! Hundreds of insignes blooming and peeping through the undergrowths! Can you beat that? Wow! I wished I had wings to photograph the entire insigne garden! |
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| INSIGNE EXPERIENCE |
| FOR MORE.. |
| click to enlarge the insigne garden |
| plateau at Rangjadong - click! |
| The insigne domain |
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| insigne seedling |
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