Epidendrum boricuarum Hágsater & Sánchez Mata 1993, "in situ" in the Rio Abajo Forest

This species is found in Hispaniola and in Puerto Rico, is also probably found in other neighboring islands (Ackerman 2014).  It is similar to Epidendrum difforme and for many years it was considered this species.  I have seen it in many places growing in live and dead trees.  It is a common species.    I have previously photographed this species in situ in El Yunque mountain in the Sierra de Luquillo.   The photos here are from the karst region of Puerto Rico near the center of the island.  These photos were taken at roughly 1000 feet of altitude in the Rio Abajo forest.  The plants are growing on trees close to the edge of a wetland.  Humidity in the area is very high and the soil is permanently wet.

It is not uncommon to see plants of this species in captivity.  I have seen plants that seemed to have been in captivity for many years but these are a small minority and are either in the hands of skilled orchidists or of people that live in this orchid habitat.  I suspect that these plants fare poorly when removed from the wild mainly due to the lack of knowledge of the collectors of its particular care these plants need to survive in captivity.    In general orchids from the mountainous interior of the island, which is wet and relatively cool tend to fare very poorly when they are taken to the drier, much hotter environment that prevails in the coastal lowlands and then not provided with the level of humidity that prevails in their habitat. 

  

Ackerman J. D. 2014.  Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles.

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!

Dendrobium MacPerson, the first of my plants to have flowers in 2015

Dendrobium Alex MacPherson is the hybrid of Dendrobium Salak and Dendrobium helix.  Den. Salak is a hybrid of Den. stratiotes and Den. discolor.   In this particular plant the strength of the heritage of the Den. helix parent can be noted in the color of the flower.  The flowers of this hybrid resemble mainly the flowers of the Den. helix parent, although they are smaller and more numerous in the inflorescence than the flowers of my plant of Den. helix.

In this particular plant the flowers are crowded in the inflorescence which makes it difficult to take good photos of individual flowers.  I cut some flowers from the inflorescence so I could show the variation on petal orientation between different flowers.  There is also some very slight variation of color between individual flowers.

A few years back I brought a number of plants of this species because they were labeled Den. helix.  As they bloom during the year I document the differences between the different clones.  In this one the pink is confined to the sepals while the petals are orange.  Some flowers show a bit of orange color on the sepals.  

Cranichis tenuis Reichenbach f. 1865, on a decade old landslide in Maricao

I have always found the Maricao Forest a very interesting place to visit.  I have visited it for decades now.  Close to the year 2000, I found a truly huge patch of Prosthechea pygmea.  Unusually for the species many of the flowers were wide open.  Unfortunately, I didn’t have a camera with me at the time so I made a resolution to return to photograph the species.  Sadly when I returned a rockslide had happened and all the plants were buried under meters of rock.  The thriving community of plants was replaced by an utterly lifeless expanse of serpentine rock.

With the hope that the Prosthechea would eventually come back, I have kept visiting the place.  The first few years there was little to see aside from algae and lichens.  Then a few grasses and bromeliads appeared.  Now after more than ten years a small community of plants have taken hold on the rockslide surviving on a meagre layer of leaf litter.

The first orchid that appeared was Epidendrum ackermanii, you could find stunted plants of the species growing in a few places.  But the plants were small and their leaves bright red from the fierce sunlight.  I also found Eltroplectis calcarata, usually at the edges of the rockslide on bushes that survived the rockfall by a hair.

In my last visited I explored the whole length of the rockslide and again failed to find Prosth. pygmea, however I spied some tiny white flowered plants growing between the stones.  To my delight, I realized that I had found an orchid plant that I had never seen before.   It turned out to be Cranichis tenuis.    I had seen photos of this plant in the Maricao forest in 2012, in Flickr, taken by Lucas Limonta so it was fairly easy to identify them.  There were only few plants in the patch I found.

The rockslide is not a pleasant spot to be and the complete lack of trash makes it clear that very few people ever go by that area so I think the plants are fairly safe from collection.   Also the plants are inconspicuous and very easy to miss among the rocks and other small herbs, In fact I would have missed them completely if I had not been specifically searching for an orchid that is itself small statured.

This plant is a Greater Antilles endemic, it is found in Cuba, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico (Ackerman et al.).  The plant is classified as rare.  It grows on limestone and serpentine soils at heights 650 and 800 mts.

Ackerman, James. D. et al. 2014. Orchid Flora of the Greater Antilles. Memoirs of the New York Botanical Garden Volume 109.

Dendrobium Burana Sunshine x Dendrobium discolor

The influence of Dendrobium discolor is unmistakable in this hybrid.  Unlike Den. discolor, this plant blooms in a relatively small plant.  I love the color and the ease of culture of this orchid.  I grow it outside, under saran shade cloth.  The local climate is hot, not warm, and during the dry season the plants experience much drier conditions than normal.  However this plant takes it all in stride and grows well without any special care.  It is in a terracota pot with very clean and hard bark.  It has been my experience that these orchids resent mightly any kind of media that stays soggy for a long time, this usually results in the loss of roots.

Epilaelia Snow Fantasy x Encyclia alata, the 2014 blooming

This is this plant second blooming in my garden.  The plant still have some way to go before it reaches full adult size.  The Epilaelia Snow Fantasy is a large plant. The Encyclia parent can vary in size, I have seen both small and some impressively sized plants and I had one that would produce up to a hundred flowers in a single inflorescence.  I expect this plant inflorescences to increase in size until the plant has three or four full size pseudobulbs in a row.  It is not clear to me how large the pseudobulbs of this orchid will eventually get.   The best thing about this plant is that the climate in my garden is very well suited to its seasonal growth pattern.