Blog
Notes from the terrarium — build logs, unexpected bloom events, field trips, and the odd essay on how oncology, orchids, and open hardware overlap.
Short notes from the collection and the wider projects around it. Posts are in English or Italian (occasionally both), dated, and RSS-published. Subscribe to the feed.
Light curve C: a raised cosine for the cloud-forest cabinet
An afternoon humidity creep on a clear May day pushed me to replace the cabinet's three-step LED schedule (40-60-40) with a smooth raised-cosine curve peaking at 70 % at solar noon. About 23 % more daily light, redistributed to keep the cabinet warmer through the late-afternoon RH danger window. Three-week experiment; this post will be updated 2026-05-25 with the result.
Species of the week: Neofinetia falcata 'Akausagi' (赤兎)
A triple-spur Japanese fukiran selection — pinkish-red flowers, upper spurs branching like rabbit ears. Lives year-round on the Genoa balcony, in filtered sun.
Species of the week: Dracula Raven 'Jet'
A primary hybrid of D. vampira × D. roezlii — three almost-black sepal tails, yellow gilled center, pink labellum. Registered 2005 by J. Leathers.
First bloom: Utricularia quelchii, three years in
A tepui bladderwort I've been growing since 2023 finally flowers, and I only notice by accident while checking the Sophronitis above it.
Species of the week: Utricularia quelchii
A red-flowered tepui bladderwort from sect. Orchidioides — the orchid-mimic celebrities of the genus. Named for J. J. Quelch, who climbed Roraima in 1898.
Species of the week: Heliamphora macdonaldae
A pitcher plant from a single Venezuelan tepui. Found in 1928, sunk into Heliamphora tatei in 1978, reinstated in 2011 — and named for a woman of mysterious identity.
Deep clean: four years in, two of them with mold building
Four years online — the last two with mold quietly accumulating in a stagnant corner — and the highland cabinet finally got its first deep clean. Triggered by what I'd taken for botrytis on a Dracula and traced back to a single fan that had silently disconnected itself months ago.
Species of the week: Dracula pholeodytes
A Colombian cold-grower that's mostly tails. Thumbnail-sized cup with a pale monkey face inside; three sepal tails spanning 10–15 cm.
Opening notes
What this blog is for, how posts work, and a small ceremony of firsts.