This orchid is endemic of the Bahamas and the Greater Antilles. In
Puerto Rico this orchid is not particularly rare, however few local people, and
this includes most orchid growers, are familiar with this plant and its
flowers. I have seen this plant hanging from trees
near roads and snaking through the ground in sharp slopes but only very rarely
have seen inflorescences and until now, I had never seen the flowers.
A few years back I located a large plant of this species
growing in the trees close to the edge of a wetland. A careful examination of the stems proved
highly disappointing, as I could not locate evidence that it had ever
bloomed. The plant is enormous, a real
giant, some stems measure tens of feet and descend all the way to the ground
from the canopy. Other stems are draped
over bushes and small trees a few are growing directly on the ground but are attempting
to climb back into the trees.
I kept returning to the plant each summer to see if it had
bloomed. Last year, to my chagrin, I
found that I had completely missed the blooming season, which happens in
July. This year I almost missed it too
but in this case because I was on vacation, away from the forest, during the
peak of the blooming.
Although the plant, or plants, it is hard to tell given the
way the stems are tangled, is quite large, it only blooms in the section of the
plant that is facing an opening of the canopy in the direction of the edge of
the wetland. The plant produced about
ten inflorescences in this small section and none at all in all the stems that
were in the deep shade. The flowers
are ephemeral and last in perfection a single day. I found a developing seed capsule in one of
the inflorescences, none in the others, but there are still a few that have not
yet bloomed so there is the possibility the plant will produce additional
capsules.
I will keep visiting this plant to see if I can take photos
of other flowers and to check how many seed capsules it produces by the end of
the blooming season.
