Is this another orchid or no? The leaves seem all wrong for me, but it's epiphytic and the floral habit suggests orchid more than, say, begonia or fuschia. Besides which, I'm almost becoming used to having small, strange, endemic plants pop up on me. I was surprised when it bloomed, but I'm no longer surprised at the variation in floral shapes and sizes. This is most definitely a more biodiverse place than I'm used to.... It's tiny, perhaps 10cm across the whole plant, and the flower is maybe 1.5cm at the longest, horn to horn. It's poking out of a dead bit of acacia in the corner of the garden. Any clues?
I'm glad you found the ID on the first one. The foliage on your new mystery plant doesn't look like any orchid that I'd recognize. Let detective work begin. Shaun
We're gonna need a whole "herd" of detectives on this one. So far, I'm stumped. But someone will surely know something we don't! Can you give more information on a single leaf? Size? Thickness? Color of the underside? Anything may help.
Leaf length perhaps 5cm, underside semi-plicate along the venation and a paler green than the tops. Leathery texture. The whole plant is very very small...
Lorax....my understanding was that all orchids have 5 petals...does this flower have 5 petals?? Hard to tell from the photo Ed
Actually, all orchids have 3 petals and 3 sepals. The petals sit just forward of the sepals and the lower one (normally) is the "runway" petal. The runway often takes on a different shape. In the case of "paphs" there appears to be only 5 but the two lower sepals are fused together and appear to be only one. The upper most is normally a sepal and is called the dorsal sepal. BUT, this can be reversed. Sometimes the runway is on the top and the dorsal is on the bottom. Confused? So are the rest of us!
The more I look at this plant, the less I think it's an orchid... The leaves are screaming begonia at me.
Come to think of it, both the leaf and flower look like a begonia. I've just never seen that one, along with a bunch of others. One grower in Miami who used to work for Fairchild Tropical Garden told me there was close to 800 begonia species. I never verified that number, but certainly wouldn't doubt it. At one time this particular grower was displaying close to 300 species in his own nursery. Has the plant produced a spray of flowers or only the single flower?
Ecuador claims close to 500 species, most of them endemic. And there's some really weird-looking flowers in that bunch - check out B. maurandiae if you don't beleive me. There were originally four flowers, but by the time I got around to photographing it all but the one had dropped off. Le sigh. It doesn't look like it's going to bloom again in any hurry, either.
I'm certain your new home country has a bunch of everything I want to grow! I've been there twice and will make it back again before I croak! Just too many plants growing in your back yard I want in mine!
Move down. It's cheaper that Arkansas, that's for sure. And it lacks snow and frigid weather as well. Plus, super extra bonus aroids! Have you been to Podocarpus National Park down here yet? If not, make sure you do on your next visit. It's actually the first place I saw this mystery plant growing; I'm surprised it's doing as well as it is here in my parched and windy yard.
Doesn't completely lack snow . . . there's even some right on the equator (look on Google Earth), on Volcán Cayambe . . http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Cayambe_Volcano_%28Ecuador%29
There's snow on Volcans Chimborazo, Cotopaxi, Tugurahua, and Guagua Pichincha as well. But it doesn't reall fall where anybody lives, you have to hike to get to it.
Don't start talking about snow! We'll get our share come December and January. I hate the stuff! My last two trips to Ecuador were both to Quito then on to Galapagos. I used to be a working photojournalist for quite a few magazines and did a great deal of magazine work in Central America, the Caribbean, Venezuela, some in Colombia with a few trips to Ecuador. Several trips to Singapore and the Indian Ocean as well. But I'd have to sneak off and grab time in a rain forest anywhere! Most of my work was done for resort hotels writing and photographing travel stories and doing underwater photography for travel and dive magazines. I'd retire (I'm already retired) in just about any tropical location but my four grand kids would have a fit! So I just built my own "rain forest" in my back yard under glass. Keeps the wife, kids, grand kids and me happy!
