Sunday, September 22, 2013

Maxillaria sanderiana Reichenbach f. ex Sander 1888, at the Botanical Garden in Quito, Ecuador


I saw this plant in the orchid house of the Botanical Garden of Quito, Ecuador.   Although this orchid was not identified with a tag, the flowers resemble the flowers of Maxillaria sanderiana that are in my books.  Max. sanderiana is native of Ecuador and Peru, where it is epiphytic or lithophytic on stony slopes.¹   The flowers of this species are variable in the extent of purple around the base of the floral segments, and the size of the lip.²  This orchid was in a raised bed composed of coarse gravel, if there was a pot buried in the gravel it was impossible to say.

¹La Croix, I. F.  2008. The new encyclopedia of orchids: 1500 species in cultivation


²Zelenko, H., Bermudez, P. 2009.  Orchid species of Peru


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