I saw few flowers but many orchid seed capsules in El Yunque forest

On my May 4 visit to El Yunque forest there were few flowers to see.  But seed capsules were everywhere.

Probably Epidendrum ramosum

Pleurotallis ruscifolia

Habenaria amalfitana

Maybe Epidendrum nocturnum

Ornithidium coccineum

Jaquiniella, probably globosa

Epidendrum boricuarum

Habenaria amalfitana F.Lehm. & Kraenzl. 1893 in the elfin forest in El Yunque

I was hiking in the upper reaches of El Yunque national forest, in Puerto Rico in May 4.  The forest was very dry, and the orchids with flowers were few and far between.  I was tired and frustrated when I returned to the parking lot where I had left my car.  I sat on the ground and when I looked around I noticed that on a place where there had been a tiny landslide there were some curious plants.

When I looked closer, I could see about ten plants of this species in various stages of growth, from young seedling to plants bearing seed capsules.  The plants are inconspicuous and very easy to miss,  If the spot where they were growing had been covered with more plants I would have missed them entirely.  In Puerto Rico this orchid is only known from the Luquillo mountains.

Habenaria erichmichaelii Christenson 2003, An orchid that is pretty in pink.

This orchid is similar to Habenaria rhodocheila. It differs from rhodocheila in that the color of its flowers is pink, the plant body has a smaller size and the leaves have silvery markings, it is native of Thailand.¹   I have had this plant for a decade now and I can attest that it is quite rewarding to grow. 

There are a few things that you need to do to help this plant bloom to its best.  The first thing to know is that this plant loses its leaves after setting seed and becomes dormant, all that remains of the plant are the underground tubers. Because of this, for half the year, the pot where it grows looks empty.  I have known people that threw their plants away in disappointment when the saw the leaves die.

When the plant is dormant, I give it absolutely no care.  The only thing I do is weed the pot from time to time to keep the weeds and ferns from taking over.  My plants survive nicely even though the pot gets wet when it rains.  When the plant starts sprouting new leaves I start giving it plenty of water and fertilizer.  I even put a top dressing of manure over the soil in the pot to make sure the plants have plenty of nitrogen available.  These plants grow fast, if you fail to give them what they need to grow strongly you will end up with small and few flowered plants.

 

In my locality these plants start growing in May which is the start of the rainy season here, so watering is not an issue.  The plants grow fast and bloom between the end of August and the beginning of September.   After the plants blooms the leaves start looking awful and by December the plant has shed all its leaves.

It is important to protect the leaves from insects.  If the leaves are damaged the plant will bloom poorly and next year it might come back smaller, weaker and it might not bloom.  Although you can mostly ignore the pot for half the year, this is not a plant that thrives on neglect when it is growing.

I have seen a few plants of Habenaria rhodocheila in cultivation in Puerto Rico, but Hab. erichmichaelii seem to be less common locally.  Unfortunately its blooming season doesn’t coincide with any of the mayor orchid shows in Puerto Rico.  Given that it grows well in the local climate it’s a bit surprising that more people don’t grow this plant.

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

Habenaria monorrhiza, a native orchid of Puerto Rico

Habitat

I took a longer than usual vacation this December and used the extra time to drive around and photograph orchids. One of the plants I found was Habenaria monorrhiza.Unlike most orchids this plant can be found growing in roadside ditches. I only found it at the higher elevation roadsides, in areas over 2500 feet in altitude. Supposedly it can grow at lower altitudes but I have never seen it in the lowlands. The plants I saw were small and few flowered. It is possible that I missed most plants in the population due to the tangle of growths in the roadsides at higher elevations. The orchids were not particularly hard to see but the many types of plants growing in the roadside plus the fact that there was a white flowered weed species flowering at the time, made spotting this plant somewhat difficult. This plant was seen near Orocovis, close to the geographical center of the island. I have never seen this plant in cultivation or in exhibition anywhere in the island so I suspect that it either dies in cultivation, local growers find it too plain to spend any time and effort growing it or most likely it is not recognized as being an orchid. This orchid should be enjoyed in its habitat and not collected.

Temperature: Possibly middle eighties during the day, down into the sixties or lower at night.

Substrate: It appeared to be dense waterlogged clay soil.

Lightning: Half the day full sunlight, the rest bright shadow.

Watering: Very wet, almost daily rain, lots of fog and drizzle.

Humidity: 100% at night, probably in the nineties during the day.Blooming: In autumn and winter (Ackermann, J. D., Orchids of PR and The Virgin Islands) apparently a few plant can be found in bloom at any time in the year.