This months first bloomer straight out of the jungles of Peru

[hcastil3]

This is the months first bloomer, this is yet another orchid collected from the wild from Peru in 1983

[WhiteRabbit]

Lovely!

[mattryan]

I hope you were allowed to take it.

Cheryl

[Chatbud]

How old is this den?

Would love to see a pic of the entire plant

[hcastil3]

I bought this orchid from a collector who owned his own orchid nursery, he says that one of his very close friends brought this orchid back from Peru in 83 when it was legal to collect them from the wild.

He told me that this plant was divided a couple of time only to find that most divisions of it were not taken care of and died. it is a 30 + year old plant. The person who originally collected it is now gone from this world..... I'll l put the pic of the plant soon

[james mickelso]

Is this an encyclia?

[euplusia]

This is an Encyclia. From the sidelobes of the lip I'd say it belongs to the Alatae group, probably ambigua.
The only thing that makes me doubt is that Encyclia ambigua is native to Mexiko and Central America.
It should have a nice scent as well.

[Corsetière]

It's so wonderful that is still going strong after all these years!

[Island Girl]

It's beautiful! It's such a shame that those divisions weren't taken care of properly. I LOVE the lips on this plant & I LOVE the color as well!

In reference to what species of Encyclia it is, I was reading "Orchids" magazine (last months issue?... Have to look) and it had a couple amazing articles about Encyclias, and rare species that are seldom seen in cultivation. It had pics of most of them as well as cultural advice, and where they were found... etc. It was really interesting. I'll have to look & see if they talk about this one, do u know what species it is?

Can't find the issue that I'm looking for, but I found the July issue, and it's not that one, so I think that it's probably the June Issue.

[hcastil3]

That would be great, it shows that it is a speciosa on the tag from the original owner who collected it.

it does have a nice smell,


I also got another one from the same collector it just finished blooming last month. That one was collected from Mexico, in 1973, unforutuanly most of the plant was dead when i got it so even though its 40 + years old it is pretty small now... this one is a Enc alata parviflora which has two disfferent flower shapes on the same spike.. its really neat, both same color, it s darker than this one i just posted but instead of five petals some of them have 3 and the other have the 5 its interesting