Bulbophyllum stellatum Ames 1912

 

Bulbophyllum stellatum Ames 1912, is a species that is from the Philippines.  Its a small plant with small flowers on an umbellate inflorescence.

When resting among the foliage, the green color of the puerto rican parrot, Amazona vittata, serves as a great camouflage

The puerto rican parrot is one of the Amazons with the the least color aside from green.  When resting or hiding among the vegetation it is very hard to see.  These two parrots were photographed just after sun down.  As you can see by the retracted foot inside the plumage of the left parrots, it is quite at home and relaxed in the tree stump.  The left parrot vocalizing loudly, something they do at sundown and at sunrise.  The bird to the left has a radio transmitter.

Sacoila lanceolata (Aubl.) Garay 1982, for many year this plant eluded me, I found it at a roadside. I expected the flowers to be red, but the flowers I found were orange

Sacoila lanceolata is a terrestrial orchid that is widespread in the Antilles and tropical America.  In the photos I have seen of the species, the flowers are bright red.  But the population I saw in the west of the island of Puerto Rico, is pale orange.  Apparently there are also yellow ones, but I have not seen them only heard about them.

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.

Epidendrum nutans Sw. 1788

Sudamerlycaste peruviana (Rolfe) Archila 2002, var peruviana

Pelexia adnata (Sw.) Poit. ex Rich 1818, Bosque de Rio Abajo, Puerto Rico

Most afternoons, when it doesn't rain, I jog in the forest trails.  Most of the vegetation by the trail sides is either ferns or weeds, but occasionally I see something unusual.  A few weeks ago I noticed this orchid.  However the flowers are tiny and the plant is small so it hardly stands out from the surrounding plants.

Microchilus species, in the forest understory, Guilarte Peak, Puerto Rico

While walking on the trail that leads to the top of the Guilarte peak, I found a some plants of this species blooming.  I found several plants to only two still had flowers as its blooming season in this locality is ending.

Epidendrum quisayanum Schltr. 1916. photographed at the Quito Botanical gardens, Ecuador

Orchid from Ecuador, truly weird, I think is a Scaphosepalum

Pleurothallis from Ecuador

Phragmipedium species from Ecuador

This orchid was in a garden.  The gardener told me it had been moved there from the site of a road construction.  The plant was growing well.

Dracula species, Ecuador, possibly Dracula lafleurii Luer & Dalström 1993

This may be a Sigmatostalix, the flowers are tiny and appear sequentially on a branched inflorescence

Photographed in a garden in Ecuador.  

Bletia patula Graham 1836, a vigorous plant with cerulean flowers

This plant is a variant of the normally pink flowered species.  It was found in a vacant lot that was going to be cleaned along with plants of the typical form.  It has proven to be a floriferous and vigorous grower.  This species is not difficult to grow as long as you replicate the way they grow in the wild.  They grow in places where, when it rains, the water percolates quickly and the ground doesn't stay soping wet.

Ponthieva ventricosa (Griseb.) Fawc. & Rendle, a few close ups of the flowers of this Caribbean endemic

The group of plants of this species that grows near my house suffered greatly during the drought of 2015.  This year has been much wetter which has allowed he clump to recuperate somewhat.  However it is still smaller than when I first found it due to the stress it underwent during the long dry spells of last year.  It only has a fraction of the inflorescences that it used to produce.

Epidendrum schlechterianum Ames 1924

This species seems to offer no challenges to cultivate in Puerto Rico.  I have seen it growing well both in hot coastal lowlands and in the cooler mountainous interior.  It needs regular watering particularly when grown in the coast where wind and high temperatures dry up fern mounts comparatively quickly.  This orchid eventually covers its mount with a mass of growths.  I photographed this plant in the garden of one of my cousins.  As you can see he grows the plant in fairly high light which causes the new growths to develop a reddish tint.

Psychilis x raganii Sauleda, I photographed several plants to see the flower variation

These orchids were growing in the eroded face of a hill, under and between spiny bushes and stunted trees.  The substrate was mud and loose stone, a mixture that made walking around challenging and dangerous.  The angle of the side of the hill varied between 45 and 60 degrees.  In some spots the bushes were a solid impassable mass.  In the steepest places there were no plants at all but only bare rock.  Most of the area was a crazy quilt of continuos vegetation, eroded spots, bare rock places and stunted grass patches.

Psychilis x raganii Sauleda, a follow up visit to the population I visited in 2013

I visited this population of orchids for the first time back in 2013.  Today I checked on it and was pleased to find that the plants are still doing well. The plants were blooming and I saw seed pods and seedlings. There seems to be fewer plants in places where they can be easily seen from the trail but that might just be because aren't as many plant flowering now as when I first visited.  The place seems little changed.  However, before I got to the place where the orchids are I had to wade through a veritable sea of neck tall grass, Panicum maximum.  There may be that coming next dry season the area will be very fire prone due to large amount of dry grass present.  However the orchids are growing higher in the mountain in a place so dry that the grass is stunted, small and inhibited from growing by the abundant spiny bushes.  You can read about my first visit to the place where these orchids grow here.  http://ricardogupi.blogspot.com/2013/10/psychilis-x-raganii-serendipitious.html

Basiphyllea corallicola (Small) Ames, one of our native orchids of Puerto Rico

I found this orchid in the Maricao forest.  I have walked many times by the place where this clump of plants is growing and never noticed them.  They are practically invisible without their inflorescences.  This plant is rarely photographed.  I always thought that Basiphyllea flowers remained almost completely closed, but it seems there is a population in Maricao where flowers open wide.  Unfortunately when I found this clump, a few buds remained and only a single, damaged flower was opened wide.