Real Orchid Plants From Costa Rica
My wife Cathy and I spent our 25th wedding anniversary vacation in Costa Rica at Dreams Las Mareas, Playa el Jobo La Cruz de Guanacaste El Jobo. Northern Pacific Costa Rica across the Bahia Salinas from Playa Manzanillo, Nicaragua. The weather in the El Jobo area is hot and dry most of the year. This is considered a tropical dry forest area. The average day time temperatures are typically in the mid-80s to low 90s. Night time temps are usually in the low to mid-70s. While the rainy season is considered May through November, the area really only receives steady harder rains in September and October. Even during these months, rains usually last for an hour or two in the late afternoon. The Image below is of Playa Jobo on Bahia Jobo and the open Pacific Ocean in the background past Isla Chancleta. This area looks luxuriously green in mid-August, but the trees will go dormant and lose their leaves during the dry season. The hills will be brown and dry looking.
Dreams Las Mareas is an all inclusive resort. But they do have an independently operated Britt Shop upstairs around the corner from the restaurants. This is where I spotted these little gems on the rack.
The orchids that I chose are:
Brassia arcuigera
Common name: Arching Spider Orchid, The Arching Brassia
Family: Orchidaceae subfam. Epidendroideae
Synonym: Brassia antherotes
Distribution: Central America to Peru
Habitat: Premontane rainforests; 650-4920ft (200-1500m)
Life form: Epiphytic
Plant size: 12-20″ x 2-3″ (30-51 x 5-8 cm), excluding inflorescence
Pollination syndrome: Wasp (female Vespidae), attempts to sting lip of flower to lay eggs
Fragrance: Pleasant
Bloom characteristics: Arching to pendant inflorescence is up to 2 feet (60 cm) long with 6-15 pale green flowers with a few brown spots. Flowers are 9″ (23 cm) long.
Bloom Time (northern hemisphere): April to November
Description: The Arching Brassia has many, pleasantly scented flowers which can vary widely in color or pattern, even on the same plant.
Source: Smithsonian Gardens Plant Explorer
Brassia verrucosa
Common name: The Warty Brassia
Family: Orchidaceae subfam. Epidendroideae
Distribution: Mexico to N Brazil
Habitat: Humid forests and rocky hills; 900-1600m
Life form: Epiphytic
Pollination syndrome: Wasps
Fragrance: Black pepper, musky (scent fades as flowers age)
Bloom characteristics: Inflorescence is 30″ long with 5- 15 green flowers. Flowers are 6″ across and last 3-8 weeks.
Bloom Time (northern hemisphere): April to September
Description: This is a large orchid which has pale green flowers with a lip covered in distinctive “warts” – small brown or green spots. In the wild, a type of white spider has been observed camouflaging itself among the orchid’s pale flowers to catch insects. This Brassia has some of the largest, most spider-like flowers of the genus.
Source: Smithsonian Gardens Plant Explorer
Coelogyne fimbriata
Common name: Fringed Coelogyne,
Family: Orchidaceae subfam. EpidendroideaeSynonym: Broughtonia linearis, Broughtonia linearis, Coelogyne arunachalensis, Coelogyne laotica, Coelogyne longiciliata, Coelogyne ovalis, Coelogyne padangensis, Coelogyne primulina, Coelogyne xerophyta, Pleione chinense, Pleione fimbriata
Distribution: SE Asia
Habitat: Epiphytic on trees or lithophyte on rocks in primary, broadleaf, evergreen lowland forests or primary montane forests at an altitude of 640 to 2300 meters above sea level
Life form: Epiphytic or lithophytic
Plant size: 3cm – 5cm (1.5″ to 2″) clustered pseudobulbs
Pollination syndrome:
Fragrance: Fragrant musk to yeasty scented
Bloom characteristics: Blooms in the fall arising on the newest mature pseudobulb with a terminal, slender, 4 to 5 cm long, erect, fractiflex rachis, 1 to 3 flowered, racemose inflorescence subtended with a narrow basal sheath and carrying 1 to 3, fragrant, long-lived flowers held just above the leaves
Bloom Time (northern hemisphere): August to November
Source: Travaldo’s blog
Epidendrum radicans
Common name: The Ground Rooting Epidendrum
Family: Orchidaceae subfam. Epidendroideae
Synonym: Epidendrum radicans var. xanthina
Distribution: Mexico to Colombia
Habitat: Open areas, between grass and rocks; 2950-8200ft (900-2500m)
Life form: Terrestrial
Pollination syndrome: Hummingbird (Elvira cupreiceps)
Bloom Time (northern hemisphere): Year round; peaks from February to May
Bloom characteristics: Erect inflorescence is 10-38″ (25-50 cm) long with 5-10 red flowers with an orange center. Flowers are 1″ (2.5 cm) across and open successively over time.
Description: This large orchid has a reputation for being weedy, but flowers easily.
Source: Smithsonian Gardens Plant Explorer
Gongora armeniaca
Common name: Yellow-Orange Gongora
Family: Orchidaceae subfam. Epidendroideae
Synonym: Acropera armeniaca, Acropera cornuta, Gongora armeriaca subsp. cornuta, Gongora cornuta
Distribution: Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua
Habitat: Wet montane forests; 2297-4429ft (700-1350m)
Life form: Epiphytic
Foliage characteristics: plicate, elliptic, acute, conduplicate
Pollination syndrome:
Plant size:
Bloom characteristics: 1-1/2` to 2` clumping bulbs topped with a pair of plicate 6 inch leaves, pendulous 8` spikes appear in flushes bearing many 1-1/4` intricate yellow finely spotted red flowers.
Fragrance: Apricot scented
Ethnobotanical uses:
Bloom Time (northern hemisphere): Summer and Fall
Description:
Source: Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia
Guarianthe skinneri
Common name: Guaria Morada, Candelaria, Flor de San Sebastian, Skinner’s Guarianthe, The Easter Orchid
Family: Orchidaceae subfam. Epidendroideae
Synonym: Cattleya skinneri, Cattleya skinneri var. oculata-alba, Guarianthe skinneri var. coerulea
Distribution: S Mexico to C America
Habitat: Wet montane forests; 650-7545ft (200-2300m)
Life form: Epiphytic
Foliage characteristics: Bifoliate
Pollination syndrome: Bee (Euglossa viridissima), attracted by food deception
Plant size: 15-26″ x 8-15″ (38-66 x 20-38 cm), excluding inflorescence
Bloom characteristics: Erect inflorescence is up to 5.5″ (14 cm) long and has 4-12 pink flowers which may not all open at the same time. Flowers are 3.5″ (9 cm) across.
Fragrance: Fragrant
Ethnobotanical uses: In Guatemala this flower goes by the name flor de San Sebastian and is used to decorate churches on the saint’s day. This orchid is also the national flower of Coasta Rica.
Bloom Time (northern hemisphere): October to June; peak in February to May
Description: Guarianthe skinneri is a medium sized orchid which is well-known in the US for blooming in the spring around Easter.
Source: Smithsonian Gardens Plant Explorer
The sticker price for each was in US dollars $26.99.
The front of the card says “This product is approved for import into the USA” and contains a phytosanitary certificate for exportation. According to the back of the information card “Artificially propagated plants of CITES Appendices (species and hybrids) sealed and transported in sterile flasks are exempt from CITES importation restrictions. They do not require CITES documentation, (CITES, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Art VII”.
The orchids are made by the company Biotecnologia Verde de Costa Rica Ltda. The back of the card has a wealth of information regarding what is in the test tubes.
The in vitro orchids are plants that are artificially produced in a biotechnology laboratory under controlled conditions of humidity, temperature, light and nutrients. They are real plants with life, just like any other of their species. They are not miniature versions of bonsais.
The gel contained in the vial provides all the nutrients and substances needed for a proper development and growth of the orchid. That’s how they survive inside the vial. They do little photosynthesis.
The vial must be opened right before transplanting the orchid.
The plant is growing inside the vial and it an remain inside anywhere from 2 to 4 months.
Both the germinating seeds and the mother plants are not extracted from the forest, they come from the reproduction of the very best mother plants of Costa Rica.
Includes a “starter square” of White moss (sphagnum) that serves as substratum for transplanting the orchid. This way the orchid can continue growing outside the vial. With normal care of a plant, and depending on the variety, it will bloom in 3 or 4 years.
… Our mission is to preserve our beautiful Costa Rican orchids, as many of the varieties are endangered.
The plan for these baby orchids is that I have a nice large glass vase that I will make into a terrarium to transplant the baby orchids into when they get a little larger (then I will put them on moss slabs and hang on the oak tree in the backyard when they are large enough to grow outside (except for Epidendrum radicans which is a ground growing orchid)). The stones I bought on Amazon (Mix Horticultural Lava Rock Pebbles Pumice Potting Soil) for drainage and to hold moisture are a mix of Black lava, Red lava, Green stone (olivine, which is a magnesium iron silicate with the chemical formula (Mg²⁺, Fe²⁺)₂SiO₄.)) and Maifanitum (a natural silicate mineral (quartz-monzonite)).
I will follow up this article when I transplant the orchids into their terrarium. Meanwhile, why not follow the FloridaGardener on Instagram…
