Native Panamanian: Encyclia or Prosthechea baculus!

[hebtwo]

Well, back in May, the girlfriend and I went to Panama to visit my brother and I spend 20% of the time drinking, 20% of the time looking for monkeys, and 60% of the time staring at trees looking for orchids!

Saw lots of things that looked like orchids: green things stuck on trees, but only found one that had a flower. So here it is:





It's been many months and I've learned so much about orchids since then, that I figured NOW I'd be able to identify it in a whiz bang. I was wrong! So I took to the net.

I searched for native Panamanian orchids and found a few different sites and one had a picture of an orchid so similar that it had to be the one.

Encyclia baculus!

When I search for that, a lot of results come up as Prosthechea baculus! Orchid nomenclature is so confusing. I guess they're the same thing. But why so many different names? It's enough to give a plant personality issues.

We found little baculus on the Northern coast while visiting Fort San Lorenzo. He was attached to a tree beside a trail of leaf cutter ants:



And right next to our feral tour guide El Gato:



And don't worry. I saw a monkey.

[WhiteRabbit]

Nice find!

Glad you saw a monkey, and had local feline your guide!

[Tschimm]

Thanks for sharing.
Encyclia is the synomym and Prosthechea the accepted name.

Beautiful anyways :-)

You can always check here for names
http://apps.kew.org/wcsp/qsearch.do;...4EB4CFD0424B93

[Dillon123]

I think your prostechea baculus is actually a prostechea fragrans

[PaphMadMan]

It is always nice to see pictures in native habitat.

Prosthechea baculus usually has narrower petals more like the sepals, narrower leaves, often distinctly has 2 flowers back-to-back rather than a looser cluster like this. I think this is probably Prosthechea fragrans or ionophlebia rather than baculus, though they are certainly similar. Photo identifications without measurements, habitat/location data, etc. are always suspect. They all occur in Panama. Of the 3, baculus would usually be the largest plant and flower, and has by far the narrowest range.

The Encyclia/Prosthechea alternative is only part of the story. Anacheilium is the legitimate alternative to Prosthechea. Anacheilium is specific to the cockle-shell types like this. Prosthechea lumps them together with some others. Encyclia was a serious mistake. Epidendrum and Hormidium were also applied in the past. Prosthechea is probably the most accepted, though only long term consensus of the experts can determine that, and is always subject to change.

[Ray]

I agree that it is not Anacheilium baculus, as they have larger flowers and bloom with two, back-to-back blossoms per growth.



My guess would be Anacheilium radiatum, or a natural hybrid with fragrans.

[euplusia]

Is it a howler monkey, hebtwo?

[desertanimal]

It is indeed a howler monkey. Looks like a female. If it were a male, you should be able to see a giant, white scrotum from that angle.



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[desertanimal]

Although I should add that the people who study howlers insist that it's either a howler, or a howling monkey, but not a howler monkey. But no one but the howler researchers give a hoot about that.



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[The Orchid Boy]

Cool! I just got back from Panama and got to see orchids in the wild