After the storm: A view of a patch of forest in El Yunque rainforest, before and after hurricane Maria.

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This is a view from the Iguaca Aviary, of a patch of forest 

in El Yunque rainforest, before hurricane Maria.

The same place, after Maria.

Anolis gundlachi, the yellow chinned anolis in El Yunque forest, Puerto Rico

I saw this Anolis in el Yunque forest.  The anolis was in a shady area under the canopy.  It kept moving away and hiding which didn't make taking his photos any easier.

Epidendrum jamaicense Lindley 1853, in la Sierra de Luquillo

On the fourth of May, I went on a long hike in El Yunque national forest.  I wanted to see if there were orchids blooming in the elfin woods forest.  I was stunned by what I found.    The elfin forest is located in one of the wettest spots in the island of Puerto Rico.  But on this visit I found that the forest was dry.  Normally every surface in the forest is either wet or sopping wet.  But no this time, the tree trunks were dry.   For the first time on one of my visits I could not find a single Lepanthes orchid with open flowers.

The forest was windy and cool.  When you walk in this forest usually the soil is wet and puddles are ubiquitous.   In this date the soil was moist and there were no puddles on sight.  Some of the creeks had so little water flowing that you had to get close to them to see it.

There were very few orchids with flowers, among those was Epidendrum jamaicense.  I had never seen this orchid with flowers before.  In fact if it hadn’t had flowers I would have thought they were plants of the ubiquitous Epidendrum ramosum.   The plants were growing in a tree along with Epi. angustifolium and Epi. ramosum.   They were the only Epidendrum that I saw with flowers, all others had seed capsules.  A single plant of Epi. angustifolium had a bud close to opening.

Unlike its relative, Epidendrum boricuarum, Epi. jamaicensis, as far as I now is not in cultivation locally.  It is probable that this is due to the fact that it is not as common as boricuarum and few people are familiar with it.   It produces only a few nodding flowers in a hanging inflorescence.  

Marcgravia sintenisii Urb. in El Yunque forest, a native vine,

A vine, very common in certain parts of El Yunque forest.  The first photo shows the inflorescence in its normal position, the second photo is from the bottom up.  Given the orientation of the inflorescences, few people notice this vine's flowers.

Sphatoglottis plicata, a weedy invasive orchid, near Mt. Britton, El Yunque, Puerto Rico

I found this orchid blooming on the roadside near Mt. Britton in el Yunque forest.  Unlike Spathoglottis populations at lower altitudes, plants were widely scattered and seemed confined to disturbed areas.  No white flowered plants were seen.  The plant whose flower I photographed had several developing seed capsules.  I recall finding Eulophia plants in this spot in the early nineties, I have visited the area several times in the last few years and have never found them.  Of all the terrestrial orchids in this part of the forest, Spathoglottis is the most conspicuous due to its brightly colored flowers.  No evidence of damage to the flowers by beetles was seen in the plants near Mt. Britton.

Palicourea croceoides Ham, a rainforest plant with colorful red inflorescences and yellow flowers

This is a bush in the rainforest, I saw it growing by the side of a forest clearing.  

Microchilus plantagineus (L.) D. Dietr, a terrestrial orchid seen in El Yunque, Puerto Rico

I found a single plant blooming, at an altitude of around 3,000 feet over sea level.  It was almost covered by grasses, only the inflorescence was visible.

Commelina diffusa Burm. f., growing in the grounds of the Iguaca aviary.

The diminute flowers of this plant are so blue they are quite eye catching in spite of their small size.

Maxillaria coccinea [Plum] L.O.Williams 1954, a lot of plants growing together in a tree in a Puerto Rico rainforest

Something happened to this tree trunk that seemed to have made it very favorable for the germination and growth of Maxillaria coccinea orchids.  There were dozens of plants growing all together.  None of the plants had bloomed so they are young still.  My suspicion is that a storm broke the top of the tree, making the remaining branches an ideal place for these orchids to colonize.

Epidendrum nocturnum Jacquin 1760, at low elevations near El Yunque

I found this plant growing in a tree trunk near the roadside.  At first sight it would appear that this plant holds the promise of a fairly large flower given its size, but sadly this is not the case.  I have seen many plants of Epidendrum nocturnum in El Yunque but none with open flowers.  All that I have found with flowers buds appear to be cleistogamic, that is, the flower self pollinizes without opening.   I hope someday I will be able to find one with fully open flowers.  Some people might confuse this species with Epidendrum angustilobum whose flowers are fully open and look almost identical with those of nocturnum, however the plant form is utterly different from nocturnum.   Epi, nocturnum is fairly common in certain areas of El Yunque forest, the fact that is can be found even in places were significant numbers of hikers and tourists pass by is a clear indication that these plants are not producing flowers that would attract the attention of plant collectors.

A normally terrestrial orchid growing on a palm tree, Prestoea montana

In the upper parts of the sierra palm forest, in El Yunque, it is so wet that sometimes the layer of plant material clinging to the trunk of trees and palms can sustain plants that normally would only grow on the ground.  Unfortunately, the plant had no flowers that would aid identification.  However the plant looks like a Erythrodes sp. a kind of orchid common at roadsides in the forest.

Lepanthes rupestris, Stimson 1970, "in situ" growing on very slippery boulders by a mountain stream

These tiny orchids grow on boulders on the side of mountain streams in the high reaches of Sierra de Luquillo.  The plants are small and easily missed.  The flowers are so small most people are oblivious to their presence.  The boulders where these orchids grow are hideously slippery, moving among them demands supreme care and a constante state of alertness.  Any slip can result in a painful fall at best and broken bones at worst.  Given that these orchids are inconspicuous and in a habitat inimical to human presence, the result is that they are fairly common even in places that humans frequent.  

Taking good macro photos of them is not easy since there is no flat surface anywhere to put a tripod.  Also you have to be careful to keep a good balance among the boulders at the same time that you are taking the photos, something that is not easy if you are handling a 100 mm lens, trying to figure out what is the best exposure and hanging for dear life from the rocks themselves to avoid falling.

On top of all that you need to be alert for flash floods caused by rain far away upstream.  These have killed many a distracted bather in these mountain streams.  Happily the day I visited this particular stream, the place was not as soping wet as usual and I could move among the boulders with relative safety.

Hurricane Hugo, a few photos from the aftermath of Hurricane Hugo in 1989.

This tree was defoliated and stripped of most of its smaller branches.  In this particular area most trees sustaine extensive damage but remained standing.

In this area the trees were stripped clean of leaves and lianas and only the hard woody stems remained.  Unfortunately it is not easy to get a perspective in this photo this makes trees with substantial sized look like twigs.  To get an idea of the size look at the lower left corner of the photo were the remains of a palm frond can be seen.

In this area the wind were so fierce even the bark was stripped of some trees.  The top of this was ripped away by the wind.

Seven days after the hurricane some roads were still impassable due to the massive tree fall.

This part of the forest had faced the full brunt of the wild and the main color was that of the bare trunks and surviving braches of the trees.  Leaves which usually covered everything are nowhere in sight.

Forest damage over El Verde Station.

Shattered tree trunk

The entrance to the Caribbean National Forest, blocked by massive tree fall

Tree trunk sheared off 

Making the best of a bad situation some college students from El Verde Station go out to do some research.

These photos were taken seven days after Hurricane Hugo hit the northwest corner of the Island of Puerto Rico.  I was able to take them because Hector Colon invited me and Sandra Moya to see the damage inflicted by the hurricane to the forest of the area around El Yunque mountain, then know as the Caribbean National Forest.  We were shocked by the tremendous damage that the high wind inflicted to the forest.  In some parts it looked like someone had bombed the forest.  Bird mortality was high, as I recall half of all the Puerto Rican parrots in the forest perished as a result of the hurricane.  Other species were similarly affected. We traveled around the El Verde area.  We narrowly avoided being in the middle of a shoot out between cars that left several cars riddled with bullets by the side of the Espiritu Santo river bridge.  We were unnerved because we heard the shooting from the spot we were inside the forest a few hundred feet away from the bridge.  Although in some parts of the forest the damage was severe, in some sheltered parts the forest suffered much less damage.  But huge parts of the forest were defoliated in a way that I had never thought possible.  I took these photos and forgot about them for decades.  Due to poor storage they degraded considerably and some became damaged.  But even in their decay they give a powerful testimony of the awesome and frightful power of a tropical cyclone.