A toadstool in the pot of Miltonia Earl Dunn

Early in the year, during the local dry season, I put a few pieces of very dry horse manure on top of the media of a Miltonia Earl Dunn.  I wondered if the addition of manure would have a positive influence on the growth of the plant.  When the rainy season arrived, the Miltonia started growing but the manure didn't seem to make any difference in its growth rate or the size of the pseudobulbs that were produced.  About two weeks ago tropical storm Bertha passed close to the island of Puerto Rico, it brought with it copious rain.  In two days 7.30 inches of rain accumulated, which is roughly about the same quantity of rain we would get in the months of June and July.  The heavy rainy spell stimulated many plants, Dendrobium crumenatum plants in bloom were everywhere in the island, my Dendrobium equitans plant is full of buds and Stanhopea panamensis developed two inflorescences.  But orchids were not the only ones to react to the increased humidity.

This morning I saw this delicate toadstool growing out of the pot of the Miltonia Earl Dunn.  The toadstool was very delicate, I am sure simply touching it would have damaged the cap.  The toadstool was in pristine condition during the morning before the day got hot.  Today was a singularly hot and dry day.  When I checked the toadstool it had become dehydrated and had collapsed.  My suspicious is that the addition of manure allowed this fungus to colonize the media of the Miltonia.  I occasionally find toadstools in the pots of other  orchids but usually they are quite small and inconspicuous.  This is the largest one I have ever seen.

The Miltonia doesn't show any sign that the fungus is harming it.  Given the warm, tropical conditions that are the norm in my garden, fungus are everywhere.   Even thought themedia has been colonized by this fungus, it doesn't look too decayed and the Miltonia roots seem healthy.

Cattleya Earl 'Imperialis' FCC/AOS



Cattleya Earl 'Imperialis' FCC/AOS an old hybrid that still ranks among the best



I brought this orchid in the nineties, around 1995. It came from Hausemann’s Orchids in Illinois. I brought it because I remembered the delicious fragrance of white Cattleya I had experienced when I was young and I wanted a plant that embodied the pinnacle of white Cattleya breeding. This plant grew well in a shade house in the coastal region of Puerto Rico and eventually produced shapely and fragrant white flowers. In the year 2000 I took it to the Rio Abajo forest, where I work, this proved to be a mistake. The plant had been potted in a media mix that was perfect for the drier, hotter, climatic conditions of the coastal plains but the potting mix was unsuitable for the much wetter, colder weather that is prevalent at certain times of the year in the mountainous interior of the island. The potting mix started decomposing at an accelerated rate and the resulting debris blocked the flow of oxygen to the roots. The result was that the plant lost its roots. To make things even worse, a black rot started invading the pseudobulbs. When I noticed the plant was in trouble, in 2001, it was almost too late to save it. I took the plant out of the pot and carefully, and with a sterilized clipper of course, started clipping away dead and infected parts. At the end I finished with just a single healthy pseudobulb with a single living eye.