Werauhia sintenisii, a bromeliad native of Puerto Rico, growing near Mt. Britton.

Tolumnia variegata "in situ" in the Rio Abajo Forest, Puerto Rico, a plant that I have been watching since last year.

I have been watching this plant since last year when I spotted it blooming in September.  The plant is growing exposed to full sun in a decaying branch.  This year has been hard on this plant, there was a prolonged spell of lower rainfall during what is normally one of the wettest periods of the year.  This year's growths are smaller and look yellower and wrinkled in comparison with the relatively larger and plumper growths it had in 2014.  The inflorescences are smaller and have fewer flowers.  However this year it has produced more inflorescences than in 2014.  The branch where this orchid grows is dead and is decaying, it remains to be seen if it will last for another year.  It is not uncommon, as one walks thorough the forest after a storm, to find branches broken by the wind.  It may be that this will be the fate of this branch.  Should this happen I will relocate the plant to another branch in the same tree.

Psychilis monensis Sauleda 1988, a pink flower

There are vast populations of this orchid in Mona Island, between Puerto Rico and Hispaniola.  There is some variation in the color of the flowers.  I found this pink flower deep in the forests of the east part of the island.  Most flowers of this species have either greenish or pale cream or yellow flower segments.

Psychilis monensis Sauleda 1988, a strange flower with unusually shaped floral parts.

The island of Mona, is in the middle of the Mona Channel, this is between the islands of Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.  The whole island is a wildlife reserve.  Although to most people this deserted island looks pristine, this is an illusion.  The island was subjected to different types of exploitation for centuries.  Its native flora and fauna was often severely damaged both by humans and by introduced animals.

But in the latter part of the twenty century the island was left alone to recuperate and nature is healing the scars left by Man.  The island has several species of orchids, the most abundant by far is Psychilis monensis.  I have seen places in the island where these orchids are downright abundant.  In habitat that is in good condition, large plants of this species can be found growing around the bases of shrubs.  But you can also find these orchids growing on the rocks, on cactus and on living or dying trees.

The flowers of this species vary in color and shape, even when you look at a small area, neighboring plants can have flowers that are noticeably different.  When I visit the island I am always on the look for variants that I have not seen before.  In the case of this particular plant, I found it while hiking deep into the interior of the island.  The plant is growing up on a tree but the inflorescence hangs down so that the flowers are at an eye height.

The flower has an asymmetrical lip, in itself this is a curiosity,  But the main oddity is a second small half lip pointing up from the right side of the flower.  None of the other flower segments is quite right.   I was in the spot where this plant grows for only a short time, I was unable to ascertain if this was a single occurrence or that the plant produced all its flowers like this.  Given the difficulty of reaching the spot where this plant grows, it is unlikely another person has come across this plant.  If I have the opportunity I will try to return to the place to see if it normally produces flowers like this.

Liparis saundersiana Rchb. f. a terrestrial orchid from Puerto Rico

In many years visiting the Maricao Forest I had never encountered this species.  Then in December of 2014, as I was looking at a plant of Epidendrum anceps, I noticed that there were several plants of this species a few feet away.  I could have easily missed the plants had I not looked at the right place, they are small and inconspicuous, a rosette of a few leaves flush with the leaf litter.    But once I had noticed the plants, I saw them at several places.  The plants must be deciduous since I have examined the places where they are growing many times and would have noticed them if they had been present.

For some reason all the plants I found were growing among fearsomely thorny plants and reaching them to take a photo was not that easy.  The largest group of plants was nested among a clump of Pitcairnia bromeliads.  A few plants here and there were under some thorny vines.  As I stepped in to take a photo a large thorn stabbed me on the foot through the shoe.  It was very painful.  The sacrifices one makes to get a photo!

All the plants I saw were producing seed pods and seemed in good health.  The plants are quite safe in their habitat as it is unlikely anyone will collect them and they live in a protected area.     Next year when I visit them I will wear thorn resistant clothes and footwear!

Perico princesa, Polytelis alexandrae una especie endemica de Australia

Una forma mutante

La especie con su coloración natural

Esta especie de perico es endémica de Australia.  No se conoce mucho sobre esta ave en su estado natural debido a que habita el interior desértico del país y porque son nómadas.  Esta especie se reproduce en cautiverio y existen varias formas mutantes.

Cacatúa abanderada (Lophochroa leadbeateri) nativa de las regiones semiaridas de Australia.

Gesneria cuneifolia (DC.) Fritsch, yerba parrera, a gesneriad endemic of Puerto Rico, seen at the Rio Abajo forest.

When I hike in the forest of Rio Abajo, I always take the camera with me, because every time I find something new and interesting to photograph.  This gesneriad is endemic of Puerto Rico.  It grows litophytically on the limestone rocks in the forest of Rio Abajo.  Its distribution is patchy, you can walk a long time without seen a single plant and then find a boulder or a road cut filled with them.  It is pollinized by hummingbirds.

Gaeotis una semi lapa endemica de Puerto Rico

Personalmente siempre he asociado a los Gaeotis con los grandes bosques de palmeras Prestonea montana que dominan el dosel a ciertas altitudes de la sierra de Luquillo.   Es en los bosques de la Sierra de Luquillo donde he visto estos animales en su mayor abundancia y tamaño.   De vez en cuando me he encontrado uno de ellos en la cordillera central de la isla, pero nunca en la abundancia que lo he visto en las cercanías de El Yunque.  En Rio Abajo los asocio a áreas pantanosas y a la noche.  Por esta razón me sorprendió encontrar un Gaeotis en una de las canas de bambú que crecen en el aviario de Rio Abajo a plena luz del dia.  Es el caracol Gaeotis nigrolineata, digo a menos que le hayan cambiado el nombre de la especie  o hayan descrito otras especies recientemente.  Veo que hay algunas personas que la llaman Gae. flavolineata, pero no he podido encontrar la razón del cambio de nombre.  El área del aviario tiene periodos en que la lluvia satura el terreno y hay charcos por doquier, pero también hay meses en que deja de llover por varias semanas al punto que aparecen profundas grietas en el suelo.  Me imagino que la aparición de la Gaeotis fue causada porque el 21 de agosto de 2013 el aviario experimento 4.80 pulgadas de lluvia, casi toda en unas pocas horas entre el medio dia y las 6 pm.  Esta importante cantidad de precipitación causo la saturación del terreno y la aparición de niebla.   Aparentemente, por algunos días, el bosque de Rio Abajo ofreció las condiciones ambientales favorables como para que los Gaeotis estuvieran más visibles de lo usual.

Psychilis macconnelliae, from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands

In January of 2013 I had the pleasure to visit the island of Saint Croix.  I was invited by Edna Hamilton (the President of the St. Croix Orchid society), to talk about the culture of Dendrobium species and hybrids.  I took advantage of the occasion to see the forests and beaches of St. Croix.  This, of course, included looking out for orchid plants in bloom to photograph.   I had the pleasure to spend some time talking to Mike Evans the wildlife manager of the Sandy Point national wildlife refuge.  We know each other from pretty far back, in fact he worked for the Puerto Rican Parrot project (the project in which I work now) when it was starting back in the seventies.  I also met Rudy O’Reilly (President of the St. Croix Bonsai Society), which studied at the Mayaguez Campus of the University of Puerto Rico at the same time I was studying there.  But I digress, let’s go back to the orchids.

I saw a population of Psychilis macconnealliae growing on low bushes over sandy soil.  Most of the plants were growing a few inches over the sand, perching near the base of low bushes.  The condition of the plants was variable, the healthiest ones I found were growing on larger bushes and were not too close to the soil.  The larger plants were those that were sheltered from the sunlight by a layer of leaves that was not so dense as cast a deep shadow.  Plants growing exposed to full sunlight looked stunted and had lots of anthocyanin in the leaves giving them a reddish coloring.  I didn’t find any really big, multi-pseudobulb plants, but this is probably a consequence of the fact that my schedule only allowed me to see a small patch of their habitat. 

I visited their habitat in the morning so that I didn’t experience the worst of the heat and sunlight, but it is clear that the climatic and environmental conditions in which the plant grow in St. Croix is pretty much the same as that in which other Psychilis grow.   From looking at the way the plants grow in the wild I can assert with confidence that these orchids would surely die under the care of the average hobbyist.   I can think of nothing more lethal for these plants than putting them in a bark filled pot and keeping them slightly moist (a common recommendation about watering orchids on older orchid books).   By the way, I don’t collect wild orchids, I prefer to enjoy them in their natural habitat.  If you are doing botanical research on orchids and want access to plants of these species, I advise you contact Prof. Ackerman from the University of Puerto Rico.

Although, from time to time, you can see clones of Psychilis macconelliae exhibited in orchid shows in Puerto Rico, all the ones I have seen are from Vieques Island or from Puerto Rico.  The St, Croix Psy. macconnelliae is quite distinct in color and easily distinguished from them.  To me the form from Puerto Rico and the form St. Croix look more different from each other than Psychilis monensis and Psychilis krugii from Puerto Rico.  But this is work for a taxonomist, perhaps one day someone will look at this question.

Puertorrican parrot goes bananas about its bathtime

This is a male of the species Amazona vittata vittata, the Puerto Rican parrot.  These birds greatly enjoy getting baths.  In the wild when it rains after a spell of dry weather the parrots become very excited and vocalize powerfully as they get wet under the rain.  In captivity the cages are designed so that the  birds can take baths whenever it rains, however a few will also eagerly seek getting wet under the water we use to clean cages.  From time to time we indulge them and allow them to frolick under the water stream.  As you can see in the video the bird is unabashedly enjoying the water.  These parrots are highly intelligent and we try, as much as it is possible in captivity, to enrich their enviroment with things they like. 

I want to make clear that this animal trusts me a great deal, birds that don't have a trusting relationship with their owners or keepers will not behave this way, some may even feel threatened when their cage is cleaned.  If you want to give your birds a bath like these make sure that the bird doesn't feels threatened, is in a familiar enviroment and that it can get away from the water stream at any time if it chooses to do so.

This particular male has been particularly fecund and a number of his offspring have been released into the wild as part of a program to reintroduce the species to parts of it former habitat where it has beene extinct since the early twenty century.

Epidendrum , ackermanii Hagsater 2004, formerly known as Epidendrum secundum from Puerto RIco

A plant from Maricao

Side view of the callus of the lip

Front view of the lip

The inflorescence of a plant from Maricao

Cultivated plant, Aguadilla, note that the lip shape and callus are diffent from
 ackermanii, the provenance of this plat is unknown

Plants growing in a landslide, note the purplish color and the small size.

Very small plants blooming 

Epidendrum secundum?  This plant is from Ecuador, growing in great numbers in the roadaside
in the road from Quito to Mindo.

Epidendrum ackermanii is a native orchid of Puerto Rico.  It can be found at middle elevations in many places in the mountainous interior of the island, particularly to the west of the island¹ .  I have found this plant growing in roadsides, landslides, fern prairies and places were the local vegetation has been disturbed or damaged in some way.  I have seen it near Toro Negro and Maricao.  In thirty years of visiting the local forests I have seen it growing epiphytically only once, all the other time it is always growing in the ground, most often under the shade of small, sparsely leafed shrubs that allow a lot of light to reach the orchids.  In Puerto Rico the plant size of this orchid varies wildly, I have found some that were only a few inches tall (which were blooming!) to some that reached two to three feet in length.   The larger and healthier plants are those growing over fast draining rocky ground overlain with a layer of decaying leaves and woody material.   Plants that are exposed to full sun for part of the day but are sheltered from the strongest sunlight at midday by neighboring bushes or trees and have their roots in a spot where there is a substantial accumulation of forest floor litter that is shaded from full sun are usually the largest. 

The size of the flowers and the inflorescence is affected by the vigor of the plant, larger plants produce both larger flowers and more of them.  But in general the inflorescences of ackermanii are quite small and relatively few flowered when compared with plants identified as secundum in horticulture.  I have seen the tiniest flowers and the fewest flowered inflorescences in plants growing in recent landslides, in places where there is little or no leaf litter and the roots are exposed.  Sometimes the plants in these situations are so small it is amazing to see them blooming.

 The leaves also vary in their color, plants growing among the rocks of a recent landslide were only a few inches tall and had a deep reddish purple color, plants growing in a shady location were a deep green.  Flower color is lilac but the shade and saturation of the color varies, some plants have flowers that are a pale rose, other plants have flowers in deeper shades of lilac.

Epi. ackermanii, although it is superficially similar to the cultivated plants identified as secundum that are commonly grown all over the island,  has some differences that easily set it apart.   Wild plants are never seen to form the large tangles of many blooming stems that make secundum so attractive.  Compared with cultivated forms of secundum the inflorescences are few flowered.  The flowers are always smaller than secundum and tend to be closely clustered.  I have never seen Epi. ackermanii in cultivation anywhere, even among fanciers of native orchids, perhaps it is because of the availability of secundum plants with larger flowers in horticulture.   I once took a keiki from a mature plant to see if it would grow in captivity but the plant failed to thrive and eventually died. The Epi. secundum that I have always grown without complaint, it may be that this orchid doesn’t do well under the heat and dryness of the coastal lowlands.

One curious thing about this orchid is that when you visit its native haunts, even thought you can see what seems like plenty of suitable habitat, the plant distribution is patchy, with groups of plants here and there.  The largest group I have ever seen only had a few dozen plants widely distributed over an area of a recent landslide.

¹ Ackerman, James D.  1995.  An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

Xylobium leontoglossum a rarely seen orchid growing in the Quito Botanical Gardens

One of the pleasures of traveling is finding things that are that surprise and delight with their mystery.  I had one of these experiences with this orchid.  This plant is the first Xylobium that I had ever seen.  When I saw this plant I was stumped as to what genera it could belong to, something that doesn’t often happens to me.  After checking a few books I concluded that it was probably a Xylobium.  I posted a photo in the Orchid Source Forum and in a short time one of the members had identified it as Xylobium leonthoglossum.  This plant was growing as a terrestrial on a bed on the orchid house of the Quito Botanical Gardens, Ecuador.  The flowers are relatively small, I didn’t measure them exactly, but because they are presented in a group, they are quite eye catching with their soft pink color.  These plants are sometimes kept by specialist growers but they are rare in cultivation.  In fact I have never seen one exhibited in Puerto Rico.  

Tolumnia (Oncidium) variegata, birds weaving this orchid into their nest

Tolumnia variegata, one of our most common native orchids

A nest of an unidentified species of bird

The orchid was originally weaved into the fabric of the nest, you can see the dried  leaves trapped in the fibers.  A new fan of leaves grew free of the nest and its now producing another leaf fan on top of a stolon.

Many years ago, as I was hiking in a local forest, I found an area where the local birds would weave orchids into the fabric of their nests.  It was a charming sight but unfortunately at the time I didn't have a camera with me.  I returned to the forest last weekend and managed to find a nest with an orchid.  When I visited this area, a long time ago it was almost pristine.  Now although there were signs of human visitation, to my utter astonishment, there was no trash anywhere.  Apparently whoever has visited the spot has been respectful of the area.  Sadly, I found the orchid population in the area was just a fraction of the size it was when I first visited.   

Ponthieva racemosa, the shadow witch, an orchid native of Puerto Rico

Ponthieva racemosa

Inflorescence, top view

A fly with pollinia stuck to its mouth parts

Pontieva racemosa goes by the common name “the shadow witch”, I don’t know the origin of the name but I am sure it is due to its preference for growing in shaded locations.  It has a patchy distribution in the Rio Abajo forest where it can be locally abundant.  When this plant is not in bloom there is little to betray that it is an orchid.   You can sometimes see it in roadside banks among the weeds as a low growing rosette of leaves growing in the shadow under the trees.  Locally it blooms in the winter and all the plants in a location bloom together.  The flowers are green and small.  It is not in cultivation and I have never seen it exhibited in any of our local orchid shows.

A group of Ponthieva racemosa

An Erythrodes sp. I am not sure which species this orchid is

This Erythrodes sp. was growing next to what I believe to be plants of Erythrodes plantaginea, but the flowers and the inflorescences are different.  You can compare both plants looking at this post:  http://ricardogupi.blogspot.com/2010/12/erythrodes-plantaginea-terrestrial.html
It is clearly not Erythrodes hirtella.  Perhaps I am not familir with the variation in flower form and inflorescesce in these species, but for all that is worth here is the photo for comparison.  Comments are welcome.