Urei Khonggumelei, The most popular Manipuri Orchid

Dr. Irengbam Mohendra Singh *

Khonggumelei - Golden-coloured Manipuri Urei (orchid) - Orchids of Manipur :: Pix - Bullu Raj

I used to admire the bright yellow Khongamelei orchid, grown on small lengths of dry small tree trunks, hung up on the veranda of my brothers' bungalow. They were rare plants. Another one I knew, was purple flower Kwaklei.

Long years after I came to Britain, I realised that orchids are highly coveted decorative household plants. They are indeed exotic and graceful and lady-like, exuding luxury and beauty.

Manipuri word for orchid is Urei (flower that grows on wood). We know each by its peculiar name, such as Khonggumelei, Kwaklei and so on. I vaguely remember people saying that there is an orchid named for every month of the year. Khongamelei and Kwaklei are the most common orchids in Manipur. In fact, I haven't seen others as they were rare in Imphal while I was growing up.

Kwaklei - Blue vanda (Vanda Coerulea) - Orchids of Manipur :: Pix - Hueiyen Lanpao

I also reminisce our pleasant stay at Hotel Himalaya in the Sikkimese Capital Gangtok in 2006. My wife Margaret, my son Neil, and my nephew - the late Dorendra, went there as a part of our Northeast tour. The stay was really wonderful as we could see changing colours of the snow-capped Kangchenjunga peaks in the early morning hours, from the hotel.

The hotel had various orchids on display every day, as Gangtok is home to a variety of orchids. Sikkim trails just behind Arunachal Pradesh in the Northeast.

In Manipur, I am told that orchids are seasonal as they bloom only in March and April. Here in the UK, flowering orchids are available all the year round indoors in nurseries and garden centres. They grow and flower on tall stems in pots containing special orchid composts.

Flowers like Khonggumelei, have an immediate impact on individual happiness and moods. Seeing flowers at home, or in the wilderness, always triggers positive emotions for me. Those of you who have seen a lonely Khonggumelei or Kombirei must know how it heightens your feelings of life-satisfaction.

An "Emotional Flower Study" published in the issue of Evolutionary Psychology at Rutgers in America, found that flowers have a positive effect on emotional health. The study also explored why people who display flowers at home, place flowers in areas of the home that are open to visitors, such as halls, lounge and kitchen to make the home more welcoming. It also creates a sharing atmosphere.

Orchids are some of the most beautiful and unique wild plants, which are now cultivated. There are 30,000 different varieties of orchids worldwide. Orchids have a special fascination for many women in Britain, partly because they are sensational.

Flowers appeared on Earth 130 million years ago in the Crustacean period. Researchers found evidence from the fossilised specimens discovered in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain. They began their life about the time of the insects, which were responsible for the plants reproduction of their species. Compare this with the appearance of anatomically modern humans, merely 200,000 years ago, from the discovered fossils in Ethiopia in northern Africa.

My late nephew Dorendra & author in Gangtok

Matched by their elegance and beauty, orchid flowers have ways of attracting their suitor insects. Like all mature flowers orchid plants produce flowers to reproduce their own kind and for the continuation of their own species. Some in their shape and colour can mimic certain female insects to attract male for pollination. Others emit human-like odour to attract mosquitoes. A few produce nectar to attract food-seeking insects.

Humans have been appreciating beautiful flowers for eons. Many flowers have been assigned meanings that are linked to love and passion, while some flowers are thought to symbolise anger, loss etc. According to 'Farmer's Almanac' there are 40 flowers with surprising meanings.

Many years ago, I came to know what the colour of roses mean, when my wife gave me a dirty look for presented a bouquet of red roses to my practice nurse on her birthday. Little did I know that the colour of roses, coveted through the ages for its simple beauty and intoxicating fragrance, have different meanings. Red means "I love you"; pink means "thank you", yellow means "friendship" and beginnings of relationship.

Orchids in author's shower room & bathroom with filtered bright light

Flowers in Britain are imported daily from Holland. Many varieties of cultivated orchids from all over the world can be bought any day from supermarkets or garden centre for £10 each. With care and food given in the attached instructions, they last for a year or so. In the last few years, orchids have become very popular as houseplants in the UK, because of so many beautiful hybridised flowers..

Commercially, they generate into millions of dollars. Many English women like my wife, display fresh flowers in the house all the year round. My wife keeps a bunch of flowers in a vase in our lounge all the time, as well as an orchid in the bathrooms

The name "orchid" was given by Theophrastus (Greek - the father of botany in 370-285 BCE) because it has two tubers resembling human testes (testes = orchids in Greek). In ancient Greece, orchids were associated with virility. In fact, Greek women believed that if the father of their unborn child ate large, new orchid tubers, the baby would be a boy.

I am glad to read that there has been some activity in the cultivation and propagation of some orchid species in the Manipur district of Senapati, with the recent distribution of commercial hybrid saplings to a few farmers at Hennbung.

It was apparently organised by Orchid Research and development Centre under the sponsorship of Department of Biotechnology, Government of India. And the research team has collected 211 so far, apart from the 26 new species found in Senapati and Ukhrul. Researchers say there are about 285 species of orchids in Manipur.

A recent survey by Indian agricultural scientists have warned that certain species of orchids found in the Northeast are now severely depleted. It is encouraging that the department of life sciences at the University of Manipur has developed a tissue culture technique for the propagation of approximately 1,000 rare orchid seedlings.

Orchid growing was not common in Manipur. Only wild collections from forests were sold for the internal market. Because of this and deforestations, some rare species must be in danger of extinction. However, many Manipuris have taken interest in collecting, growing and hybridising wild orchids for commercial purposes.

India has over 1,229 species of orchids - 10 percent of world's orchid flora. The Northeast has the highest concentration with about 700 species, of which 550 species are in Arunachal Pradesh, 523 in Sikkim, while Meghalaya has 300 species.

Cymbidium orchid, Sikkim

Sikkim has a rich orchid flora. Their Cymbidium (boat-shaped) orchids are the state's heartbeat of its booming flower trade. Sikkim Government, having realised the commercial prospect of orchids, has about 2,000 established research centres. The National Research Centre for Orchids at Pakyong - 12 km from Gangtok, is now producing new hybrids to compete with other states such as Assam, Odisa, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Naidu.

Sikkim produces two crore-rupee-worth of orchids every year for the national and international markets. They have devised facilities for cold chain transport by air to Delhi and Kolkata. Sikkim trails just behind Arunachal Pradesh. While Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are cashing on their unique orchids, Manipur is crashing on its indigenous orchids.

The Government of Arunachal Pradesh has also established an Orchid Research and Development Station at Tipi in West Kameng District. This is Asia's largest Orchidarium with 500 species. In the month of January every year, the Arunachal Pradesh Government organises Orchid Festival at Itanagar, its capital.

The orchid family has the largest family of plants on earth with 1,000 genera and about 20,000 species. On top, there are over 100,000 modern hybrids (mixed species) and thousands are coming up each year. The classifications are based on the shape of the flowers rather than the colours.

Eeyong Lei (Orchid of genus dendrobium

There is another rare variety of orchids in Manipur, whose photo was sent to me by Prof (Dr) Ranjana from her Langol House garden. She says, it is called Eeong lei.

There two types of orchids depending on their habitat - natural home:
(1 Epiphytic - plants that grow above the ground, supported by other plants or objects.

They derive their nutrients from the air, dust, wood debris and bird droppings, and water from rain by their hanging roots. Manipuri orchids belong to this type. They host friendly organisms like fungi, which in return, provide their cooked food - sugars.

(2) Terrestrial - these grow in the ground like ordinary plants with their roots in soil from which they get their water and food. These are the ones that are sold as house plants. They are simple to maintain.

Orchids are also classified depending on the mode of their growth. (1) One variety is called monopodial, such as cymbidium that has a single main stem which grows to about 30 cm and flowers. When the season ends a new shoot grows from the base forming its own bulb (pseudo-bulb) from which a stem shoots up which eventually flowers. They continue to grow year after year.

(2) This second variety is called sympodial (conjoined feet), such as Manipuri Khongamelei and Kwaklei. These have a specialised rhizome with a lateral growth pattern in which the apical "meristem" ie the growing tissue of the plant is terminated. It can either make an inflorescence (a cluster of flowers) or another determinate structure. So the growth continues by a lateral meristem, which repeats the process. So the plants that appears to be continuous, is in fact, a cluster of meristems.

Hybridising that began in 1850, is crossing plants of different flowering patterns and colours, and at the same time crossing a bigger plant with a smaller one and so on. They have to be crossed among the same genera and also among the compatible ones. After that, with a lot of patience you have to grow many seedlings from the cross on to the flowering bed. You can produce many characteristics you want. You can register your hybrid with your or anybody's name if you like.

Today's orchids are mass produced in this way in greenhouses. They are house plants that people buy to decorate their home, as they thrive in filtered bright light or in partial shade.

Photos of Flora in Manipur : Gallery
Orchids of Manipur by Bullu Raj in April 2012 :: Part 1
Orchids of Manipur by Bullu Raj in April 2012 :: Part 2