Myrmecophila tibicinis to watering or not to watering

[Sak_ikim_lol]

Two months ago this plant started to grow two spikes. Great!! But because it is near the vandas I continued to watering frequently and then suddenly the spikes stopped growing!! "MMM, ok, I understand you, in nature when you (the plant) are sprouting spikes here we are not in rainy season, so I confused you" (This species grows wild here in Yucatan) So I stopped watering. One spike get dry and the other just stayed resting... I thought that I lost the tibicinis season in my garden... but two weeks ago it restarted to growing and growing so fast!!!

Do I must to water or not? It is in full sun (last year I changed its place and I have learned that this is a sunlover even here that sun is so hard at midday) and the pseudobulbs are shriveling.

By the way, I think that this is an the orchid that you can find in many places in Yucatan Peninsula, but I think (and I have seen) that about growing knowledge is the less understood in the zone.

Thanks !!

Mario

[isurus79]

It stopped growing when you changed its conditions from wet to dry, so I'd leave it alone until after it blooms.

[stefpix]

I saw Myrmecophila christinae in Tulum Q. roo. they grow in the red mangroves, close to the water. SO the humidity is high, higher than the surrounding areas near the ocean. It the town / pueblo I met a senior woman that was growing one on a tree outside her building (she mounted it on the street tre). I have photos somewhere. She was watering it I believe daily. I saw others used as landscaping, those in full sun and left to the elements looked less healthy.

I saw a huge clump with dozens of pseudobulbs growing high in a tree, shaded by the leaves. I would say it depends on your conditions, sun / shade / humidity.

[james mickelso]

It will continue to grow and bloom. Keep watering it. Once the flowers open, do not get any water on the flowers. I have an orchid that takes two years for it's flower spike to elongate and then flower.

[Sak_ikim_lol]

Originally Posted by isurus79

It stopped growing when you changed its conditions from wet to dry, so I'd leave it alone until after it blooms.

I thought the same about to leave it alone. But I will be still checking frequently.

THANKS!!!

---------- Post added at 01:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:12 PM ----------

Originally Posted by stefpix

I saw Myrmecophila christinae in Tulum Q. roo. they grow in the red mangroves, close to the water. SO the humidity is high, higher than the surrounding areas near the ocean. It the town / pueblo I met a senior woman that was growing one on a tree outside her building (she mounted it on the street tre). I have photos somewhere. She was watering it I believe daily. I saw others used as landscaping, those in full sun and left to the elements looked less healthy.

I saw a huge clump with dozens of pseudobulbs growing high in a tree, shaded by the leaves. I would say it depends on your conditions, sun / shade / humidity.

So you have seen how this orchid is surviving when is taking from wild. And I wrote surviving because the only place where I have seen it in full developing is in nature. Here some people think that because is an orchid can add to his garden a nice touch (and Riviera Maya hotels think the same) I have seen it planted in the soil, with poor growings, small pseudobulbs, large clumps under non-decidous lush trees but no traces of blooming or short spikes, etc... It isn´t the same with other species for example Brassavola nodosa, but tibicinis suffers frequently when is taking from wild. Indeed it grows near the coast, you can see it in the swamps and attached high in the trees of the deciduous jungle when you are approaching to Cancun.

By the way, I have this plant because a cousin forgot it during vacations at a summer house garage after collected it from the near swamp. So I took it to Merida. I think tibicinis don´t like to be disturbed or maybe is so difficult to remove it from the swamp short trees where they are so well attached and so easy to break the pseudobulbs from the base, that the plant takes its time to feel again well. And besides if you put it into soil, if you mount your big plant with one loose wire, etc... oh well... the plant suffers as I have seen frequently.

I don´t like to have zone species in my collection. Because I know that they come from nature and I want to keep them there. I have seen tibicinis growing in nature and I´m trying to reproduce the same at my garden, but indeed it is not the same with my pampered lab orchid hybrids than with species even coming from my zone. I know that it likes sun, full sun and this is why is blooming now, but I will keep it with sparingly watering because its relatives in nature are entering into the dry season (when it blooms) but they are living so near the sea, as you wrote, with high humidity (they are in the swamps) but Merida does not have the night breeze from the sea so I must to check humidity.

Thanks !! And I hope you enjoyed your visit to Peninsula de Yucatan .

Mario

---------- Post added at 01:37 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:30 PM ----------

Originally Posted by james mickelso

It will continue to grow and bloom. Keep watering it. Once the flowers open, do not get any water on the flowers. I have an orchid that takes two years for it's flower spike to elongate and then flower.

TWO YEARS!!!! ?? Mine is growing fast... It seems like the time that it lost when in standby now is trying to recover it!

Yes, I have wrote that I will keep watering but checking... and indeed I will post pics when flowering!!!


Thanks for your pics! Is it an Schomburgkia?

Mario

[stefpix]

MArio,

I agree hotels kill the native orchids. I posted a thread with photos here last year.

I believe that M. christinae is in Quintana Roo, and M. tibicinis is in Yucatan. They look very similar.

Everyone says that they grow in full sun. But the ones I have seen in full sun were taken from nature and were suffering with small pseudobulbs.

The plants grow mostly in the Mangrove forest and are shaded by the leaves of the Red Mangrove. They probably get sun in the morning, but shaded by leaves. they grow really low, close to the water of the cenote, and i saw clumps that fell in the water and were rotting. The flower spikes are 3 / 4 meter tall and go above the top of the mangrove canopy.

In the town I saw the senior lady, she took it from nature and attached to a tree. it was facing west and was slightly shaded by the canopy. It had spikes. She took good cares with plants.

I saw another huge clump at someone's house entrance.

I have photos, but I need to look for them.

I saw some in full sun. they had flowers, but only the newest pseudobulbs were alive. the old ones, dried up.

[stefpix]

some photos from Q. roo. flora i need to add the Myrmecophilas

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=3cd565b2e9

Searched "mexico" | Stefano Giovannini's photojournals and archives

https://vimeo.com/86035716

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=ebff07f8ea

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...1&l=966fee4735

[stefpix]

more photos

[Sak_ikim_lol]

Stefano:

Here I´m replying to your last three messages. Thanks for your lines and pics!!! GREAT!!

You are right! Here we have been called "tibicinis" to all the Cow Orchids, but indeed recently there was a great research about them. I´m not sure about if chiristinae is from Quintana Roo and tibicinis from Yucatan, but certainly I have seen differences between plants from these Mexican States. Even more, when I have seen tibicinis from Veracruz or Tabasco.

By the way during summer vacations when I was a child I collected many spikes (only the spikes!) and I remember at least five different color variations, from the yellow-brownish one to a brick reddish and soft purple. It seems to me that the Mérida nearest "ciénaga" from my summer vacations is less lavish than those from your pics.

Here there is a link very useful, and indeed it seems to me, as you wrote, that my plant is a christinae, and after reading and researching after your kind lines, I suspected that nearest real tibicinis is in Campeche.

Flora: Península de Yucatán

Another species that deserve a deep research here is Brassavola nodosa. As tibicinis I have seen in some Merida gardens two different plants one with short more semi-tereted leaves and another with a broader bigger leaf as the one at your last pic. Indeed we can think about grandiflora, but as I wrote, I think it must to be studied better. I suspected that the one with short leaves comes from plants brought from other Central Mexico states and it was shared by the growers through the years.

Again thanks for you lines... I really appreciate your time looking for the pics, post them, reply me and so I got to study more about Myrmecophilas here in the Peninsula...

Regards

Mario

[stefpix]

Mario,

I am sure you can find Myrmecophilas that fell off the mangroves, standing in the water and that are more viable. The Rhizophora mangle (red mangroves ) do not have large branches trunks and the Myrmecophilas that grow on those seem sometimes in a precarious position.

there seem to be a lot of that. I know the Mangroves themselves are strictly protected ( i have seen establishments being fined for cutting some of the mangrove branches), but Myrmecophilas seem really abundant. Just I am sure the best ones grow protected by leaves of the host trees / bushes (which makes sense as the spikes are so long to grow above the canopy), so I am not sure when people mean that these grow in full sun.


The Brassavola in teh photo was in some abandoned cement factory, more inland, some km. from the sea. IT was growing on a Ficus that fell after a storm. I went back a year later and most growths died of exposure to the sun. SO i think even the Brassavola need some level of shading