Anolis pulchellus, Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, this anolis is of the type that lives in grasses and bushes but never on trees

I took the photos in my orchid shade house in the town of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico.

When mighty forest giants fall

On May 4 I was hiking in the El Yunque forest.  In my hike came across two large trees that had fallen.   One was largely intact, the other had fallen on a road and had been cut in pieces. When I saw them I could not help thinking of what happened when an ancient Chinese emperors died.  When the emperor died, a number of servants and other people were sacrificed to accompany the emperor in his afterlife.  In the case of these trees, they were laden with epiphytic orchids which face certain death in the forest floor.  In the tree that fell in an open area most orchids died from sunburn.  In the one that fell in a shady spot, the orchids are still alive but will eventually die when the trunk rots away,  There were Lepanthes, Pleurothallis, Ornithidium, Jaquiniella, Epidendrum as well as others I could not ID.  I didn't collect any of them, the forest is in a protected area and collection is forbidden.  Also these orchids live in a habitat that provides very, very high humidity along with brisk air movement, this is not a combination that the average orchid grower can easily provide.

Bulbophyllum lasiochilum Parish & Rchb.f 1874, the yellow flowered type

They yellow form of Bulbophyllum lasiochilum is easy to culture in the Caribbean and can thrive if one waters and fertilizes it regularly.  However it has the same annoying behavior as many other Bulbophyllum, its new growths will sometimes grow away from the mount.  As a result you might end with a plant where all the new growths are suspended in the air hanging grown old pseudobulbs that are dead.  When the stem rots the living part of the plant can fall to the floor a be lost to snail or accidental trampling.  lt is best, from time to time, to take a division of a few pseudobulbs and start it in another mount.  That way if something happens to the original plant you will not lose the species.

Dendrobium harveyanum Rchb.f. 1883 blooming in 2015

This orchid bloomed for the first time in my garden in 2008.  Since then it has bloomed every year without fail.  The only complaint I can make is that young plants can be slow to reach blooming size,  By the way, this is a miniature species, the largest cane this orchid has ever produced for me has been all of nine inches tall.  Canes that are six inches tall can bloom and on well established plants even smaller canes four to five inches tall can bloom.

Dendrobium jenkinsii Wallich ex Lindley 1839

A delightful species, the pseudobulbs are tiny and the flowers are very large in comparison with the size of the plant body.  I cultivated this plant exactly like Dendrobium aggregatum.  Sadly, I lost it to rot because I put it in a place that was too shady for this species.

Laeliocattleya Amphion (Lc. S.J. Bracey x Laelia tenebrosa)

I saw this Cattleya hybrid on the 2008 Mayaguez orchid show.  The plant was impressively large and had a tall inflorescence.  The color was intense and very eye catching.