About a year ago
I heard from a friend that he had found a population of Psychilis kraenzlinii in the southwest of the island. He gave me the directions but it turned out
that finding the plants was a lot harder than just arriving at the place. Coordinating a joint visit to the site turned
out to be an almost impossible task due to our very different work schedules
and the fact that we live pretty far away from each other.
But recently we
managed to find time to visit the place.
The orchids are not located in an area legally protected by the state as
a natural area, but paradoxically, it is better protected that some orchids in
state forests by simple dint of being located by the treacherous terrain and
the difficulty getting there. No, I won’t reveal where it is, as I am sure
collectors would clear the spot in a hurry. Even a single determined person
could severely damage this population.
When I arrived
at the area where the orchids live I found it was quite unlike any other orchid
habitat I had visited before. Rather
than pristine habitat, it turned out to be a crazy kilt landscape of secondary
scrubby vegetation, patches of woodland, cow pastures and places where (for
inexplicable reasons) every bit of plant cover has been scrapped away until the
bedrock as exposed. Amid all this a reasonably healthy population
of plants survived.
How could this
be so? I think there are several reasons
for the survival of this population of orchids.
First, the plants are not visible from the road. My suspicion is that any plant that blooms
near the road is quickly collected. Second, the area has an impressive density of
poisonous, spiny and toxic plants, making even a short hike a thoroughly unpleasant
not to say unhealthy experience. Third,
the ground in the spot where the orchids grow is uneven and covered everywhere
with a loose rocky soil that makes walking hard and that can cause a nasty
fall. By the way, did I mention the rocks are sharp edged, I learned this the
hard way. In essence the plants survive
because they are not collected and the spot where they grow is inimical to
human presence.
I was overjoyed
when I saw the plants thinking I had found Psy.
kraenzlinii, but when I got closer to them it was clear to me that some were
different from the typical kraenzlinii
under cultivation. Their orange-red
color of the flowers and the yellow tint of the columns was unlike anything I
seen before. Intrigued, I took photos of
the flowers of as many plants as I could to get an idea of the variability of
the population. When I got home I
checked the volume six of Carl Withner’s book, Cattleyas and their relatives.¹
From there I got the ID of these orchids. It turned out that at least one of the plants
was not Psy. kraenzlinnii but Psy. x
raganii.
Psy. x raganii is a hybrid
of Psy. kraenzlinii and Psy. krugii, it occurs where the distribution
of both species overlap. I have never
seen any plant of this hybrid under cultivation and I could locate only a
single photo of this species on the Internet.
This hybrid was described in 1988 by Ruben Sauleda. Psy x raganii. has a smaller flower size
than kraenzlinii, the callus of the
midlobe of the labellum is yellow or pale rose carmine to white and basally
broader.²
¹ Withner, Carl.
1996. Cattleyas and their relatives, volume VI, The Bahamian and Caribbean
species.
² Sauleda, Ruben.
1988. Phytologya 65(1): 1-33.
