A Lankesterella sp.?

I found this plant in a pile of broken branches next to an earth road.    I had a hard time identifying this plant since even the genus eluded me.  KellyW of the Orchidsforum suggested that it was a Lankesterella.¹  

¹Zelenko, H., Bermudez, P. 2009.  Orchid species of Peru

A Mesospinidium sp,?

I saw this plant in a garden in Mindo, Ecuador.   My best guess at the genus of this orchid is Mesospinidium.  It is said to be closely related to Ada.¹  The flower in the photo is not totally opened, which doesn't help with getting an identification.

¹Zelenko H. et al. 2002.  Orchids, The pictorial encyclopedia of Oncidium

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.

Porroglossum amethystinum a tiny and yet very weird orchid from Ecuador

When I first saw this little orchid I was totally stumped as to what orchid genus it could belong.  My ignorance can be excused on the basis that I had never previously seen an orchid of the genus Porroglossum.  These orchids are known for the particularity that they have a sensitive lip that retracts into the flower when touched.  The movement is triggered by an insect which is forced the lip’s action into contact with the plant pollinia.  There are a few specialists orchid growers in the United States that keep Porroglossum species but I have never seen this one before.  The flowers are lovely but small, the inflorescence is quite long in comparison with the flower size.  Because of the many other orchids with larger flowers in the Cabañas Armonia site I almost missed this one.   I saw this plant in the town of Mindo Ecuador.

Encyclia aspera in Mindo, Ecuador

I found this Encyclia aspera plant growing in a garden in Mindo, Ecuador.  The flowers were in poor condition probably due to insect attack.  The plant was in a shady spot which probably accounts for the few flowered inflorescence as Encyclia are generally plants that need from bright light to full sun to do their best.   This plant was rescued from an area where the vegetation was cut down to make way for a road.  I must confess that as an orchidist it was a peculiar experience to walk the trails in the Mindo area and see hundreds of orchids of every imaginable description in the decaying branches that lay on the sides of the trails.  I am sure that I would have been able to gather, just from the stuff lying on the ground, a collection of plants to rival that of a botanical garden in variety and sheer size.    You might think I would have been tempted to gather a few of the choosiest varieties to take home but I knew better.  Probably none of the plants would survive for long away from their native temperature and humidity regime in the Andes Mountains.

Many years ago an elderly friend of mine brought from Peru a Sobralia orchid.   How he managed to pass through customs with that plant is mystery to me to this day as it was not a tiny thing.   Well, things were different back then, and I am taking about a time decades before the terrorist attacks in New York made the airport inspectors adamant about groping everyone and their grandma.  The moral I guess is that never underestimate an orchid grower hell bent on bringing an orchid home.  My friend was as excited as a hen with a newly laid egg with his Sobralia plant.  He waxed lyrical about the huge, brightly colored flowers of the orchid.   He diligently showered tender and loving care on the orchid but it was all in vain.  Shortly after arrival the plant leaves turned black, fell and then the rest of the plant became something similar but not quite exactly like, a pile of mush.  Since then I have seen this chain of events replayed with a variety of orchids, all of them cooler growing plants brought on impulse by people dazzled by the beautiful or unusual flowers.

An Oncidium species from the heteranthum group, maybe orthotis

I found this peculiar orchid in a fallen branch by the roadside on the area of Mindo, Ecuador.  In the heteranthum group of Oncidium the inflorescences usually have many aborted flowers, in some species only the flower at the very tip of the inflorescence develops normally.  In the case of this orchid, the plant producing the inflorescence was quite small and the inflorescence had only a single fully developed flower.    I have not seen these plants in cultivation locally.  I have tried to find the identity of this plant but so far have not found a clear match.  The flowers are reminiscent of the flowers of Oncidium orthotis, a member of the heteranthum group.  Unfortunately the illustrations I have seen are not good enough for a definite determination of the identity of this orchid.

An Oncidium species from the heteranthum group, maybe orthotis

Lockhartia species, seen in Mindo, Ecuador.

A Lockhartia flower

There are about thirty species of Lockhartia.  They are found in Central America, the Caribbean and in South America.  I found this one on a fallen tree in Mindo, Ecuador.  The plant seemed to be no worse for the wear for being in an exposed in a roadside.  The branch where it was growing was in poor condition, which is probably the reason why it fell from the tree.  This beautiful plant is an interesting subject for cultivation but it is almost sure this particular plant, which comes from a high altitude in the Andes, would do poorly in the average orchid collection.  But there are other Lockhartia species that hail from lowers altitudes that are more forgiving of high temperatures and low humidity.  I have seen Lockhartia species growing happily in collections in Puerto Rico.  These plants have been in areas of PR where the local climate provides the high humidity but I have seen plant in collections where the orchid grower supplies the watering and humidity that are lacking locally.

Sigmatostalix picta, small epiphyte from Ecuador

Close up of a single flower, note the strongly reflexed sepals and petals

Sigmatostalix picta

I found this little plant in many places along the trails in the Mindo area in Ecuador.  Most of the plants I saw were in branches that had fallen recently during a storm that had very strong winds.  The flowers are brightly colored.  The floral parts are strongly reflexed so that the most notable thing at first sight is the colorful lip.  The plant was also seen grown on the trunk of trees by the roadside and on a citrus tree that was growing over a small creek.  The common feature of the areas where I saw this orchid is the high humidity.  The local temperature never varies from a regime of 45F nights and 75 F days.  The plant themselves are nice looking as those that were in places where they got very bright light had a reddish coloring in their pseudobulbs.  

The orchid growing in situ

Pleurothallis gargantua seen in Mindo, Ecuador

I saw this plant in the gardens of Cabañas Armonia in Mindo Ecuador.  This very large pleurothallid orchid has the largest flowers in a genus that is most commonly known for small plants with tiny flowers.  This plant is native of Ecuador where it lives in mountain forests at heights of between 4500 and 7500 feet in cool and wet locations.  In the location where I saw this plant there is little if any seasonal variation but temperatures fluctuate widely from between 75F during the day to 45 at night.  

Cyrtochilum serratum an orchid from Ecuador

I first saw this orchid in a greenhouse in Quito Botanical Gardens.  But later I saw it growing in cultivation near Centro del Mundo and in Mindo.  The plant seems to be a vigorous grower and all the plants I saw had inflorescences.  The fact that I saw no seedlings anywhere I went makes me think that the plants were taken from the wild and planted in the places where I saw them.  All the plants I saw were adults.  The inflorescences are very long. I saw one that was about nine feet long and had several short branches along its lenght.  The flowers seem to be produced continuously along the inflorescence, all the inflorescences I saw had only a few flowers on them, near the tip of the inflorescence.  I saw a plant tied to a bamboo pole about eight feet up from the ground, its inflorescence had been trained along the lenght of the bamboo pole so that people could enjoy the flowers at eye level.  This plant is a cool grower from the Andes where it grows at elevation that can surpass the 9,000 feet.  This means that it is wholly unsuited for cultivation at sea level in hot locales.  It comes from western Ecuador and Peru.