A Maxillaria species from Ecuador

Maxillaria sanguinea Rolfe 1895

I saw this orchid at the 2016 show of the Puerto Rico Orchid society.  This plant produced a clump of many growths all growing close together.   It is commonly seen and shows and occasionally one sees a specimen plant.  The flowers are smaller than those of its relative Maxillaria tenuifolia.

Maxillaria tenuifolia Lindley 1837, a specimen plant

This large plant was brought to the April 10 meeting of the AOS judges in Ponce, Puerto Rico.  This plant is common in local orchid collections.  Specimen plants are not rare.  Once a saw, in the garden of a very old lady that used to sell orchids, a plant of this species that was several feet across.

Maxillaria schunkeana M.A. Campacci & R.A. Kautsky 1993

I saw this plant at the 2016 Puerto Rico Orchid Society show in the Jardin Botanico de Rio Piedras.  The flowers of this orchid are a dark purple color which under some lighting situations makes them look black.   

Ornithidium coccineum (Jacq.) Salisb. ex R.Br. on El Yunque forest 4 of May 2015

On a hike through the elfin forest I found many plants of this species.  Interestingly, fully adult plants had all bloomed some time ago and were full of seed pods.  I found  two small plants that had flowers.   I also noticed that some of the older, larger plants I photographed in the past are now gone, most likely fallen from their perches.

The forest was the driest I have ever seen.  There were very few epiphythic orchids with blooms.  These two plants and two plants of Epidendrum jamaicensis were all I found blooming.

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.

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

Maxillaria brunnea Linden & Rchb. f. 1854, near Mindo, Ecuador, "in situ" on a fallen tree by the road.

During my visit to Ecuador, I was able to see many orchids, this includes many that were on trees and branches that had fallen by the roadside.  This is the case of this orchid.  A huge storm had toppled trees and broken branches some weeks before my visit to the Mindo area.  This plant was growing, on the side of a tree that had fallen by the roadside.  The trunk of the tree had several orchids but the Maxillaria was the only one that was blooming.

Maxillaria fletchteriana Rolfe 1913, "in situ" in Mindo, Equador

I saw this species in Mindo, Equador.   This species is native of eastern Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia.  The flowers are large, fragrant and long lasting.  I saw it at 4500 feet of altitude, at a wet forest, full of orchids of all description.

A large flowered red Maxillaria species from the Quito Botanical Gardens, somewhat reminicent of nigrescens

I found this orchid growing among the rocks in the display area of the Quito Botanical Gardens, Ecuador.  The plant was growing at ground level and I would have missed it entirely if I had not looked between the boulders.  It is a relatively small plant and it was overshadowed by the much larger plants that covered most of the display area.  The flowers are brightly colored and reminiscent of Maxillaria nigrescens, although the flower in this photo is not exactly alike the plant in the book “Orchid Species of Peru”.   But in orchids it is not advisable to make a definite identification of a plant just because of the color of its flowers.  

A white Maxillaria especies from the Quito Botanical Gardens

This large flowered Maxillaria has white flowers with a yellow lip.   The plant is growing at the side of the trail that is inside the orchid house.   It is a huge specimen several feet wide.  The flowers are quite showy but since the plant is planted at ground level you have to get on hands and knees to really appreciate their beauty.  Once you are level with the plant it becomes apparent that there are a number of flowers that are hidden among the leaves of the plant.  This orchid is among the most beautiful Maxillaria I have seen but the sheer size of the plant doesn’t recommend it much to greenhouse or windowsill growers.  Most of the flowers were pure white but there was a single one that had a red tint on the sepals.  It looked pretty much identical to the white ones except for the touch of color.   

Maxillaria coccinea, in Puerto Rico's cloud forest

Maxillaria coccinea flowering in the Puertorican cloud forest

Many seedpods can be seen developing on the different inflorescences

Under the mother plant there are many seedlings growing between mosses

on the bare rock face.

A visit to Max. coccinea habitat

On April 7, 2007 I was in the Rio Grande area in some official business and sacrificed I my lunch hour to make a side trip to the Caribbean National Forest. I wanted to take a look at some orchids whose growth and development I have been observing for several years. The weather was rainy with spells of hard rain and fog interrupted by moments of strong sunlight and then back to rain again. The particular plants I wanted to see are easily reached but I had a hard time photographing them because of the rain. I also had to take in account the fact that the area where they grow was filled by an invasion, one could almost dare say an infestation, of tourists. I waited for moments when there were no tourists nearby to avoid drawing attention to the plants. I noticed to my dismay that some had disappeared. A large, almost four feet tall plant of Epidendrum longicarpum was gone, also missing were several good sized plants of Epidendrum borincanum. However the most surprising thing was that only very few plants of Lepanthes woodburyana could be located and the disappearance of Lepanthes sanguinea. These plants were abundant in the area and it used to be that with even with the slightest effort you could locate several plants of L. woodburyana a one or two of L. sanguinea. I have no idea why there were not there, it is extremely unlikely they were collected. Most of the other small flowered orchids were present in good numbers. Maxillaria coccinea is locally common and in favorable habitat is one of the plants most often found in fallen logs and branches. The goal of my visit was to photograph a plant in full bloom. It appears that I arrived slightly late in the season as I found a large number of pollinated flowers.The weather in the area where these M. coccinea thrive is very wet and every surface is covered with plant life of some sort. I know several people that have tried to cultivate the Puerto Rican Maxillaria coccinea, all have failed even though some have used quite ingenious methods to keep the plants in a level of humidity that would be conductive to their survival. It is unclear exactly why plants eventually deteriorate and die but the best guess I can make is that the plants needs a combination of very high humidity, mild temperatures and substrate that are almost impossible to replicate in the hot tropical lowlands without some sort of artificial means. These plants are found at an altitude of 3500 feet in an area that is a National Park and therefore they are safe from the typical threats of habitat destruction and over collection. The area where they grow is visited daily by hundreds, sometimes thousands of tourists but they are usually respectful of the rules and their impact in the area appears to be little. The plants are safe mainly due to the fact that the terrain is so treacherously slippery that most visitors are justly afraid of leaving the trails and having a deadly fall. This is not an idle consideration, in the past imprudent visitors have come to grisly ends by unwisely venturing into the slippery forest floor away from the trails.The plants are growing in an area that is protected from the sun most of the day but that does get full sun for a few hours in the afternoon. There are plants growing all over the place but there were few growing in exposed situations most are under the cover of bushes. The ones in deep shade are small and few flowered.The area where the plant was found receives constant and precipitation almost year round in the form of rain, drizzle, and fog. The area where these plants grow is dominated by sierra palms inter sped with many other kind of tress. Most of the trees are of small stature due to a combination of soil and climate factors.

Temperature: It can range from the high eighties in the middle of the day in the peak of summer to the middle fifties at night in the peak of winter. When I have visited the forest the temperatures have fluctuated between 65F and 75F.

Substrate: Trees, rotten logs, branches, and rocks.Lightning: Light to heavy shade, best growth and flowering in light shade. Watering: The area gets rain almost daily and the soil is saturated and never dries up.

Humidity: 100% at night and only slightly lower during the day.Blooming: I don’t know the blooming season of this species but in this visit many plants had flowers.

Light: A constantly shifting mixture of full sun and cloud filtered light, the orchids were under medium sized bushes that protected them from full sun but allowed a fair amount of light to stricke the orchids underneath.