Eulophia tenella old flowers

Upper flowers of this Eulophia tenella spike have darkened in colour at the end of their performing season. Only the green stem and lively bracts resist the general droop of age, trying in vain to inspire. There is a hint right at the top of buds that relinquished their living rights early, when resources ran short.

Ovaries and outer sepal surfaces are losing their last tinges of green, but not yet the shine that reminds of a prettier past. In the still open flower on the right, the visible part of the protruding lip displays the bold undulations typical of the flower’s lip crest, bread brown and multiply rounded like a moon landscape shaped by water.