Page "Ansellia" Paragraph 4

This is a large, perennial, detrivore, and epiphyte, or at times a terrestrial plant, growing in sometimes spectacular clumps, attached to the branches of tall trees.

The white, needle-like, aerial roots are characteristic for this orchid.

They point upwards, taking the form of a trash basket around the tall, many-noded, fusiform, canelike, yellow pseudobulbs, catching the decaying leaves and detritus upon which the plant feeds.

These pseudobulbs can develop a gigantic size, up to 60 cm long.

This robust orchid can grow very large, sometimes with an estimated weight over a tonne.

Even eagle owls ( Bubo bubo ) have been seen to make their nest in such a clump.