OK bulbo growers help me out here. I woke up this morning to find to my utter delight that my bulbo facetum was open. It was not all the way open yet so I decided to wait to take a picture after work. I picked up the pot to smell the flower (which smelled like musty plastic) and noticed that the lip of the flower was sort of "hinged' and flapped up and down alot. I assume this is normal, and maybe helps with pollenation? Anyway Today I got home from school all ready to take a pic and the flower seems to have closed a little bit rather than opened more. PLEASE tell me I didn't accidentally pollenate my bulbo. I hope maybe it will open up again...do they perhaps open in the morning and close in the evening? Did I upset my bulbo by sniffing it and making a yucky face? :cheeky: It was such a fab flower, I want it to open again!!!

I have no direct experience with B. facetum, but I can mention a few general things. First, the rocking lip is common with Bulbos and Cirrhos – I think it may be part of the definition of the genera, but I'm not at all sure about that. At any rate, it's very common if not ubiquitous. Sometimes this is a pollenation "trap"; i.e. when the insect walks far enough up the lip, the center of gravity shifts so that the insect is rather suddenly slammed against the column. In some, the rocking lip seems like it might have an attracting function, as in B. barbigerum, which has a little poof-ball at the end of the lip, and the whole lip swings up and down in the breeze. Really cool to see one outdoors.

And some do close for the night, but not too many. I don't think facetum is one of them, but I'm not sure. Also not sure how long it would last, but my random guess might be between one and two weeks.

Hope somebody else can provide more certain and specific info.

also if you are growing it outdoors, a fly may have fertilized it.

Don't get me started on pollen stealing flies...(see the old Bulbo. echinolabium post for the culprit). The lip is supposed to rock, which is really neat on the multifloral species seeing them do it all on at once.

If the pollen cap is gone from the tip of the column, it probably got pollenated. If not, wait a day or two and see what it does.

Jon

The rocking lip is one of the defining characteristics of the Bulbophyllum.
Its counter balanced so that when a fly lands on it, it tips foward to jam its head against the anther to pick up pollen, or stuff pollen into the hole leading to the stigmatic surface. As what Sue said

Unlike paphs that have that big obvious stigmatic surface, the stigma of many bulbophyllums is down a short hole or slot, and pollinia need to be activly stuffed into it for pollination. Bulbos are very hard to accidentally pollinate, though some will sometimes "spontaneously pollinate".

Also I have several bulbo species whose flowers close up at night (at least for the first few days). As long as they are not pollinated this effect is reduced over time until they stay open full time. And then they wilt.

Count how many days the flower stays good for. Bulbo flowers generally don't last nearly as long as paph flowers, but they will rebloom on old growths or stolons between growths.

Thanks everyone! I have learned much about bulbos in the past couple of days! As you can see on my other thread, my bulbo was not pollenated and it does in fact close up in the afternoon and reopen in the morning. So far it has done it 2 days in a row. I will keep tabs on it!