How to Grow Restrepia Orchids — and Propagate Them from Leaf Keikis

Restrepia is one of the most rewarding pleurothallid genera for a home collection. The plants are small and tidy, the flowers are striking for their size, and a healthy plant can flower on and off for much of the year. They also have an unusual habit that makes them easy to share: new plants can grow from the base of a leaf.

What a Restrepia flower is

The broad, often spotted or striped ‘petal’ at the bottom of a Restrepia flower is not a petal at all. It is the two lateral sepals fused together into a single structure called the synsepal. Above it, the dorsal sepal and the two true petals are reduced to fine filaments with small clubbed tips, like antennae. Flowers arise one at a time from the back of the leaf, on short stems, and a single leaf can keep producing flowers for several years. For that reason, don’t remove older leaves while they are still green.

Conditions that suit Restrepia

Restrepias come from Andean cloud forest, and they want what that habitat provides:

• Humidity: high – ideally 70% or more. Restrepias are a little more tolerant of drier air than many pleurothallids, but they grow and flower best when humidity is consistent.
• Temperature: cool to intermediate, with a clear night-time drop. Long spells above the mid-20s slow them down.
• Light: shade to filtered light; similar to or slightly less than a Phalaenopsis.
• Water: keep the medium evenly moist. With no pseudobulbs, a restrepia that dries out shows it within days.
• Air: gentle, constant air movement.

Potting

A small pot of sphagnum moss is the simplest approach and works well for most growers. Clear pots, such as our 85mm square clear pots with saucer, let you see when the moss is drying and how the roots are going. Restrepias can also be mounted, but only where humidity is high enough to stop them drying out between waterings – see mounting vs potting miniature pleurothallids.

Propagating Restrepia from leaf keikis

Restrepias sometimes produce small plantlets, called keikis, at the junction of the leaf and stem. Once a keiki has a few roots of its own, around a centimetre long, it can be cut away and potted into a small pot of sphagnum.

Growers also raise new plants from detached leaves. The method commonly used is:

1. Choose a mature, healthy leaf with its stem attached. A leaf that has already flowered is fine.
2. Cut it cleanly at the base of the stem with a sterile blade or orchid snips.
3. Lay it flat on damp sphagnum moss in a small clear container with a lid (a small pot under a seedling humidity dome works well), or in a sealed bag with some air inside.
4. Keep it in shade at cool to intermediate temperatures, and open the container briefly every few days to exchange air.
5. Be patient. Plantlets can take weeks to months to appear at the base of the leaf. Pot them once they have roots of their own.

Not every leaf will produce a plantlet, so it is worth trying a few at once if you have them. Leaf propagation is a way to back up a plant you value, not a replacement for good culture of the parent.

Species we grow

Restrepia guttulata, from Colombia, Venezuela and Ecuador, has a densely spotted synsepal. Restrepia contorta has a yellow to tan synsepal marked with reddish spots or stripes and varies from plant to plant; it has also been used as a parent of registered hybrids. Both grow well under the conditions above.

For the wider group’s culture, see the Pleurothallid Orchid Care Guide. You can also browse our current pleurothallid orchids.