Cranichis muscosa Sw. 1788, one of the first orchids blooming in the Rio Abajo forest, Puerto Rico, after hurricane Maria.

I found this orchid in a roadside.  The leaves had its sides sunburned and the plant was small for the species.  It escaped being buried in a mass of fallen bamboo stems.  It is growing on the side of a road cut, a drier place than where I am used to find them.  When I saw it I was happy that some plants survived.  The loss of the canopy due to the hurricane winds was a disaster for the plants used to grow on the shade of the forest understory, many burned to a crisp and died.  The reduced humidity in the weeks after the hurricane also was an issue.  Many plants were smothered by the massive leaf fall and the numerous large branches that were thrown violently to the forest floor.

Cranichis muscosa Sw. 1788, in the Rio Abajo forest in Puerto Rico

I found this plant in the roadside during one of my hikes in the Rio Abajo forest, Puerto Rico.  This plant can be found in the roadsides in certain parts of the Yunque forest, in the east of the island, where I had photographed it previously but this is the first time I have seen it in the Rio Abajo forest.   The plant itself is inconspicuous out of the blooming season.

Because the flowers are oriented with the lip uppermost the green marking of the lip are not easily noticeable.  I found only three plants near a patch of Ponthieva racemosa.   The plants were growing in a small stretch of roadside that for some reason has not been overrun by exotic invasive plants.  

Cranichis muscosa a diminute terrestrial orchid

This terrestrial orchid can be common in its preferred habitats in moist forests areas at higher elevations in the mountains of the island of Puerto Rico.  I have found it growing in roadside areas and places in the forest where a tree fall or some other disturbance has opened the canopy and allowed unfiltered sunlight to reach the forest floor.  I have also found it in grassy areas near the towers at the peak of El Yunque.  The diminutive white flowers are not of horticultural interest and these plants are not, as far as I know, in cultivation.  These plants are generally deemed uninteresting except by a tiny group of orchidists that like native orchids.  This plants are of a small stature and unremarkable when out of bloom.