January

If you visit the Wetland Park now, look around open areas along watersides and it’s not difficult to find clusters of small plants bearing spikes of white flowers. Look closely and you will be surprised to discover that it is a kind of orchid! This is the ‘Common Zeuxine’. You will see this lovely little plant along the Stream Walk, the Life Zone and around the paddy fields of the Wetland Discovery Centre.

The Common Zeuxine is a terrestrial herb of the Orchidaceae family. It is a small plant ranging from 4 to 28 cm tall. It has linear-lanceolate shaped leaves from 2 to 8 cm long, and its stem is light brown in color. Rather ordinary it appears when not in bloom, once it comes to flower it is astonishing to see its delicate, white petals shining like white jade through sunlight. It is so amazing to see the plants, where they appear in clusters, resembling a group of fairies dancing among other vegetation!

Apart from the wild, the Common Zeuxine is also an occasional weed on lawn. It actually has another common name of ‘lawn orchid’ that refers to its lawn-appearing habit.

The Common Zeuxine is native to Hong Kong, and it flowers from January to April. When you meet this lovely and fragile plant, please enjoy by observation only as all orchids in Hong Kong are protected by law, so make sure you don’t hurt them!

Though beautiful and lovely, the Common Zeuxine is a short-lived plant, lasting for only several weeks from sprouting to wilting. Actually when it starts flowering some of the lower leaves have already withered. So come to Wetland Park now if you wish to see this lovely little plant!