Press Release Summary: Oncidium orchids are also known as "Dancing Girls", renowned for their bright and showy yellow flowers with ruffled edges that look like a troop of ballerinas in frilly yellow dresses.
Renowned Swedish botanist Olof Swartz, widely considered to be the world's first orchid specialist, became enthralled with the Dancing Girls of the American tropics when he first beheld them in jungles of the Americas in 1783, and named them Oncidiums.
Press Release Body: A Delightful Addition to Indoor Gardens
Native to tropical regions all over the Americas and the Caribbean, Oncidium orchids are also known as "Dancing Girls", renowned for their bright and showy yellow flowers with ruffled edges that look like a troop of ballerinas in frilly yellow dresses. Some varieties may exhibit orange, red, pink, white, or blue flowers. Dancing Girls are known to feed pollen to hummingbirds.
Renowned Swedish botanist Olof Swartz, widely considered to be the world's first orchid specialist, became enthralled with the Dancing Girls of the American tropics when he first beheld them in jungles of the Americas in 1783, and named them Oncidiums.
Also Known As...
Oncidiums are also known as "Dancing Dolls" for their distinctive appearance, but also referred to as "Spray Orchids" by some orchid aficionados due to a capability they possess to store water. Oncidiums are also sometimes titled as "Butterfly Orchids," named by people who found their looks to be reminiscent of butterflies.
Dancing Girls Are Sure to Satisfy a Range of Preferences
Some Dancing Girls - equitants - are are quite petite, and very pretty, and others are large, growing up to five meters high, with grand blooms. They come in all sorts of colors and sizes, sure to please a range of tastes.
Most "Dancing Girls" are epiphytic - they reside on trees, rather than on the ground, and get nourishment from the air. Dancing Girls bloom well and take on a lovely form, and so are choice flowers for anyone just starting to get involved with orchids.
Fertilizer for Oncidium Dancing Girls
Keep in mind that Dancing Girls' preferences in growing culture is related to they're from, so they can't all be treated in the same way. They have been found to be partial to fish emulsion, manure teas, and other organic fertilizers.
Potting Needs of Dancing Girls
Bark based mixtures with perlite and charcoal added, are the standard potting soil for Oncidiums. Oncidiums should be repotted at least every couple years, maybe even every year.
Best Humidity Range of Oncidium Orchids
Humidity should run about 40% to 60%.
Best Temperatures For Our Dancing Dolls
70 and 85 degrees Fahrenheit (21-29 Celsius) night time temperatures of between 55 and 60 degrees Fahrenheit (12.8 to 15.6 Celsius)
Special Qualities of Dancing Girls
Dancing Girls are tropical beauties. The oncidium genus encompasses over three hundred species of orchids found in tropical zones of the Americas.
Like many orchids, parts of the Dancing Girls' stems are round and puff out in bulblike forms, known as a "pseudobulbs." Each Dancing Girl pseudobulb has a single segment in the stem, known as the internode which is enclosed in a sheath or covered in some other way. The internode joins the nodes, small swellings on the orchids stem out of which the leaves emerge.
Colors
The much loved Dancing Dolls are typically yellow shades, but some are pink, purple, red, or white. They range in size from rather tiny to quite large.
While most Dancing Girls are epiphytes living in trees, some varieties are lithophytes residing on rocks or stones, getting nourishment from the atmosphere, or terrestrials and grow in the ground.
Flower Size
Orchids sizes range from those of miniature varieties with blooms that are less than an inch (2.5) in length to enormous varieties that reach heights of over five meters, with leaves or around twelve inches (30 cm) in length and flowers around 4 inches or five inches(10-12.5 cm).
Oncidiums are certainly complex and not fully understood, and classifying them has proven to be a challenge for botanists. While we may not fully understand the ways of Dancing Girls, we can always enjoy the mystery and allure of these beauties.
2025
