Orchids for a black thumb

I never considered myself an orchid grower, or even an orchid fancier. All I knew about orchids came from reading Nero Wolfe. But this morning, when I saw two black butterflies with red stripes on their wings drinking deeply from these beauties, I thought maybe I should reconsider.

Naturally, when I returned with my camera the butterflies were gone.

These particular orchids were purchased an an orchid fair in Boquete last April. The plant was blooming at the time but it dropped its flowers soon after it was placed in the tree. I was surprised to see the blooms again in September.

But, you know, Nero Wolfe, never talked about how orchids grow outdoors.

It turns out that this side of the mountain in Panama is one of many great places for orchids. I learned from our gardener last year that the nance tree (see the Low Trees and Shrubs page for more on the nance tree) is a common habitat for orchids. We walked back into the woods and once I had the pattern recognition in my head I saw them everywhere, it seemed. Here’s the native orchid, growing in the same tree as the purchased one:

I’ve never seen this particular orchid bloom, however. So when we saw all the flowers in bloom at the orchid fair, we just gave in to indulgence.

 

The plant on the lower right of the second image is the one that gave rise to the flowers on today’s image.

Notice a couple of things. a) The lack of moss in the image with the orange orchid, taken in April at the very beginning of the rainy season, and the abundance of moss in the above image, taken today nearing the height of the rainy season. b) The slabs of wood that the orchids are tied to. This is how the plants were sold at the orchid fair. It made it very easy to bring them home, tie them to the nance tree, at let the rainy season begin.

Notice also the bulb-like features at the base of the leaves. These are pseudobulbs used for storage of nutrients. It is my impression that these features are what gives the orchid family its name. The Greek word orchis means testicle. Wikipedia says that the name is based on the appearance of “subterranean tuberoids,” whatever those are. I’m not, as I said, an orchid expert by any means so I’m not going to argue with Wikipedia except to note that when we took a tour of Finca Dracula, the guide pointed to the pseudobulbs when he was telling us how orchids got their name.

Finca Dracula is a fine orchid conservatory located near Volcan, Panama. The orchid family is the largest plant family in the world, and Finca Dracula houses thousands of species. There’s an excellent set of 120 photos from Finca Dracula at Flickr, featuring the Dracula orchid itself and many other species.

I’m saving orchid identification for later. They’re beautiful, you don’t need a green thumb to grow them in Panama, but I have a lot of botany to learn before I tackle their taxonomy!