Wild orchids in south FL
 

I recently bought a 3 acre property in S. Florida. My wife and I have been building a beautiful garden and walking path.

I just discovered in the back acre of my property there are lots of wild orchids. Well, within the year this area will be fenced in and used for goats. Obviously any plants in the area will not survive long.

Is there anyone here that can give me advise about transplanting these and keeping them alive in our garden path area? I will try to get a picture or identify them.

Well...

What are they?

Are they terrestrial?

Are they epiphytical?

Genus and species?

Photos?

All I have to ID from is the leaf and roots. I will get a picture asap.

They are small ground orchids with jagged white(ish) roots. A single leaf growing out of each pod - Two or three pods/leaves growing out of each root cluster. The leaves have a light green/dark green pattern. Again, all I have are they leaves to go by and the leaves look similar to this.

I believe they're Oeceoclades maculata.

They've naturalized here in the tropical US (Florida) and the Caribbean islands.

http://www.orchidspecies.com/orphotd...ulataplant.jpg

http://www.orchidspecies.com/orphotd...esmaculata.jpg

Am I correct?

If they are, they shouldn't be very difficult to transplant. They've somehow managed to become pan-tropical, and shouldn't present too much of a problem in cultivation.

My recommendation is that when you dig that you try to avoid damaging the roots as much as possible. Orchids don't have a tap root system, their roots sprawl all over the place. So it is best to dig around the plant as wide as possible. The root system probably doesn't penetrate too deeply into the soil. Digging 2 ft deep into the ground should get you clear of the roots, but I'd still use caution.

Once out of the ground, you can either move them to another location and plant them back in the ground or pot them up in an appropriately sized pot.

Don't wash the soil of the roots. It's complicated to explain this, but trust me, don't wash the roots. There is a reason behind this suggestion. The short answer being mycorrhizal fungi.

The sand/soil they grow in is loose. I can just scoop under them with my hand and the entire roost system comes up. I have grabbed a couple and transplanted them in a few different ways. (not washing them, thanks :)) I guess I will see which ones live and which ones die. Then take action once I know what I am doing.

I was kind of hoping to get some ideas on different methods of potting orchids. I know some can go in pots with good drainage, some in soil, some not. And maybe some insight as to how a ground orchid should be watered/misted.

In your case I would not "reinvent the wheel".

If you can scoop the plant out along with the stuff it was growing in, then use what it was growing in as the potting medium.

How much to water?

That's dependent how well you know how wet the soil the plants were growing in get during the course of the year. This also entails getting to know your own climate. Then either let nature do the work or imitate it as closely as possible.

Basically the point is this:

You're where the orchid is, use that as a guide. How the orchid is growing in the wild is the best guide possible. This includes understanding the environment it was growing in, and their growth habits and behaviors.

These should be quite easy to transplant, as I've done this on more than one occasion with good success.

---Prem

It should be as easy to transplant as any other invasive species. It looks like the slope of the ground and level of light are the main things but even then it dosn't look like it has to be perfect.