A tough one. Maxillaria species (PERU)

[justatypn]

Very interesting thread, Tony your the best, can't wait to see what Lance comes up with...nice one

[David Morris]

Just to add to this the plant originated from Species West. It is jungle collected probably in the 1980's. David of Species West recounted 2 hair raising collecting stories. One in which he spent several days to get to a area where Telipogons had been reported. After he got there he said the Temperature was about 45 degrees f. The wind was blowing at a complete horizontal with rain. He said he had never been so cold in his life and there were the Telipogons in full flower blowing in the wind. The second story was in a tributary of the Amazon (Peru still) in the wet season, where he had reasoned correctly that he would be closer to the top of the trees and could use a pvc pole he had fabricated to knock orchids out of the trees from a boat. Stinging ants found the inside of the pole very accomadating and began to fill the boat looking for revenge. I don't know where in Peru he collected the Maxillaria, but all of his collections where strictly Peru.

[Tindomul]

Ha! Interesting story. Good to know about the ants though. Are orchids really that easy to find on trees?

[Tindomul]

Ha! Interesting story. Good to know about the ants though. Are orchids really that easy to find on trees?

[Tony]

Here's some more from Lance:

Originally Posted by gonewild

Hi Tony,
I went and photographed the Maxillaria I told you about. It is actually M.variabilis (not variabilia) and was imported as a single small plant from Mexico many years ago by Orchids of Los Osos. It is not the same species as the one it the OB post, so you can rule that possibility out. Here is a link to the flower and growth habit photos I took today. Maxillaria variabilis.
You can post the link so others can see the difference.
regards,
Lance

[David Morris]

To the question about the easiness of getting orchids out of trees. First I have never been to Peru, but have many friends that have, only 3 near the Atlantic side lowlands and only 1 David from species west who talked about it. I suppose it does depend on exactly where you are in elevation and what kind of tree. I do remember reading about the late Dunsterville cutting down a couple of giants in the jungle in order to get a accurate Orchid assesment of them.

[orchideric]

Hey David,

Your Maxillaria is an odd one. It does superficially resemble a member of the M. cucullata group but it is not. The strongly flattened pseudobulbs with sharp edges (ancipitous) and the foliaceous bract below the pseudobulb are all wrong for that group.

It may well be a new species.

Hope that helps, Eric