---
title: Jewel orchid in a terrarium | Glass Jar Garden
description: Jewel orchid (Ludisia discolor): A creeping orchid with velvet leaves and golden veins. Happy in shade. Needs light 1,000 to 8,000 lux, humidity 60 to 90 %...
url: https://glassjar.garden/guide/plants/ludisia-discolor/
---

Plants

# Jewel orchid
Ludisia discolor

Easy · Closed jar only

A creeping orchid with velvet leaves and golden veins. Happy in shade.

## What the simulation uses

- Light: 1,000 to 8,000 lux (The brightness it grows well in.)

- Humidity: 60 to 90 % RH (Air moisture it is happy in; below the lower end it dries out.)

- Temperature: 18 to 29 °C (Comfortable range; outside it growth slows.)

- Dies at: below 10 or above 35 °C (Days beyond these temperatures kill it.)

- Soil pH: 6 to 7 pH (Soil acidity it prefers.)

- Grows up: 0.65 cm/month (How fast it gains height in good conditions.)

- Spreads: 1 cm/month (How fast its edge creeps outwards.)

- Copes with wet: fair (How well it stands soggy soil; poor means rot comes quickly.)

- Copes with still air: good (Sealed jars have still air; poor means grey mould finds it.)

- Copes with shade: excellent (How well it holds on in dim light.)

- Copes with drying: fair (How well it survives the jar drying out.)

- Water use: 0.08 ml/cm²/day (Water drawn up from its roots per cm² of leaves in room air; a sealed jar cuts this to a fraction and returns it down the glass.)

- Leaf drop: 3 %/month (Share of its leaves it sheds each month as litter for the cleanup crew.)

- Soft leaves: yes (Soft new growth that hungry isopods will nibble.)

- Full size: 26.5 cm tall, 34 cm wide (Its size when grown, before the lid stops it.)

## Care

- Day length: 10 to 13 h

- Substrate: Moist

## What kills it

- wet soggy substrate (stem and root rot)
- cold below ~13 C
- mealybugs

## Description
Unusually for an orchid, this one grows in soil and creeps along the ground. It copes with very low light and enjoys a warm, humid jar. Wet soil rots its stems, so keep the mix damp rather than soaked.

Also called black jewel orchid.

Estimated, where sources were thin: temp_lethal_c; growth rates; light_lux (NC State says part shade; Wikipedia says tolerates extremely low light).

## Sources

- [plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ludisia-discolor](https://plants.ces.ncsu.edu/plants/ludisia-discolor/)
- [en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludisia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludisia)

[Grow it in a jar](https://glassjar.garden/?guide=plants/ludisia-discolor)

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