This plant was attached to this branch of the same tree where it was originally growing after it fell from the canopy.
This orchid is found in North
America, South America and the West Indies.
It is common in those parts of Puerto Rico where it’s climatic and
moisture needs are met. This means that
it can be found in many places in the northern part of Puerto Rico where it is
moister and that it is much rarer in the drier southern areas¹. In my experience I have always found this
plant in places where moisture is consistently high such as near the sea shore
and in the proximity of watercourses and swampy areas. I have seen it in the area of Manati,
Arecibo, Utuado and Morovis. The plants
have been growing in Guava, Crescentia,
Randia, and in assorted citric
trees.
When I take a walk thorough
places were this orchid is abundant, I can almost always count on finding one
or two plants that have fallen from the canopy. It is not rare to see plants hanging by its
roots from a dead twig. I used to take
home these fallen plants to see them bloom and to try to grow them. Keeping these plants proved to be an
exceedingly frustrating experience. All
the plants I collected eventually died. The
way they died was in every case the same, the plants would bloom, sometime
after that, the leaves would start showing signs of yellowing or rot, defoliation
and death would follow. The plants I
normally find in the ground, except for one case, have been small.
After a few plants had departed
to the great tree fern plaque in the sky I gave up on keeping them with my
orchids and started putting them in twigs of the guava trees that grow wild
around my house. None of the small
plants I found ever grew large enough to produce the impressive inflorescences
that large specimens of this plant are capable of producing in the wild. The typical inflorescence was relatively
small, had one or two branches and was comparatively few flowered. In only one case in my experience a plant
lived a few years, but this was probably because the circumstances of that
particular plant and the things I did to try to keep it alive.
One day, after an especially
nasty thunderstorm that also brought some uncommonly strong winds for the area,
I found a large plant of this species in the ground under a guava tree. The canopy of this tree was about sixteen
feet tall and hosted a number of large plants of this species of orchid. The twig where the orchid was growing had
snapped during the storm. I carefully
tied the plant to a lower branch of the same tree, trying to approximate the
way it was growing when still on the tree branch. In time the plant sent roots
into the branch and seemed no worse from the wear.
When the plant bloomed it
produced a large inflorescence. The inflorescence it produced was not as large
in size as that of the plants growing near the canopy. Because I had read (sadly I can’t recall where)
that if the plant was allowed to set seed this hastened its demise, I
ruthlessly pinched off any flower that seemed to have been fertilized. The plant survived a second year and I then
produced a smaller inflorescence than its first one. I also cut all possible developing seed pods
out that year. The plant survived a
third year. I was not paying close
attention to the plant and several seed pods were produced. The plant died that year.
In the years between 2005 and
2007, this plant was plentiful where I live and large plants could be seen
blooming magnificently on the tops of guava trees. But after 2007 this orchid decreased greatly
in abundance, to the point that right now no large plant can be found anywhere
on the guava trees around the house.
Even small became scarce. A few
days ago I found a small plant in an orange tree. This is the first one I had seen in more than
two years. The guava trees that hosted
the plants back in 2005 are now completely free of them.
It is common to see this plant in
local orchid collections. Some people
mount them in tree fern along with the twig in which they are attached. I read in an old American Orchid Society
Bulletin, that some growers have been able to keep this plant alive for years,
even in the absence of a living host for the plant. Locally I don’t know if anyone has been able
to maintain these plants alive for an extended period of time. I have seen photos in the Internet of
specimen plants with several huge inflorescences, the most likely explanation
for these specimens is that they are wild collected plants potted together.
¹ Ackerman, James D. 1995.
An orchid flora of Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.
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1 comment:
Dear Sir,
I read your article closely as I m one Orchid lover and Conservationist. Regret to say that all wild grown specimens were vanished slowly just after 2007. I think, was not due to impact of Global Warming. We should try for its insetu conservation at Wild.
Thanks a lot for your closed observation of this plant.
Mr.Jyoti Patel,
India,
jyotipatel2k7@gmail.com.
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