Myrmecophila tibicinis adventures

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In another thread, the OP asked about growing a just-arrived Myrmecophila hybrid seedling. I posted some information there about how I had grown my seedling, but am posting more information and a photo here, so as not to hijack that thread.

I have always loved the look and difficulty of spelling Schomburgkia species, and the Schomburgk brothers did some amazing field exploring. Now some Schomburgkias have transitioned and become the even more challenging-to-spell genus Myrmecophila (Mcp.) I'm not dyslexic, but for some reason my mind always wants to see that as Myrmecoprophilia, which would really be something completely different.

A seedling Mcp. tibicinis (Motes 1667) came to me in June 2015 (under the synonym Mcp. grandiflora.) It was much larger than I expected, with over a dozen pseudobulbs. The roots had been sheared off in a straight cut about an inch / 2.5cm from the base of the plant, so I suspected it had been grown mounted. It looked as though somebody had given it a flat-bottom haircut. I had previously killed (quickly) two Mcp. I tried growing in pots. I read they prefer full sun, as well as mounting or growing bare-root in an empty basket instead of pot culture. I initially tried the bare-root method.

June is the hottest month in Phoenix. Not many new plants of any kind stand a chance outside, even in the shade. I put the Mcp. where it got dappled sun in the morning through a window, and began watering it when the roots looked dry, which was about every 2 days. Humidity was 40%-60% most of the time.

One of the newer pseudobulbs promptly got a round burned spot, and the four or five smallest pseudobulbs dried up. I moved it to bright shade and began dipping it in water daily. The burned spot dried up and turned light brown. The plant made no new roots. All the other orchids I owned were in mad growth in the warm weather. After a few weeks the plant pushed a new growth from the most recent pseudobulb. It got about an inch long and dried up without making new roots.

I decided to water more, and began soaking it overnight every 2-3 days in a bucket of rain water. I sprayed it with MSU fertilizer at about 125 PPM nitrogen once a week. Night temperatures were in the mid 80s F / 28C. The plant pushed another pseudobulb, which matured about half the length of its parent. No new roots. It was now mid Fall; nights were cooling a little, and days still hot.

I wondered whether perhaps having the rhizome on a mount would create a more humid microclimate and induce root formation. I mounted it on a piece of well-aged mesquite branch. I didn't have any sphagnum so I used a thin layer of polyester batting, the stuff used inside pillows and quilts. I reasoned this would hold water and would not decompose. (I am right on both counts, and it works well as a mounting medium for several other kinds of orchids - but it does pick up dog hair and any other kind of dirt. I have black dogs so I noticed this right away.)

I continued soaking the plant in water every 2-3 days. As temperatures cooled I moved the plant into more and more sun, and then into my sunroom in later October. No new growth and no new roots. My sunroom is quite warm and bright during the winter. I reduced the watering interval, not dunking again until the mounting pad had been dry for a day.

About February 2016 the plant began making a nubbin on the bract scar of one of the back bulbs. What could this be? Soon I realized it was a new growth. Still no new roots.

That growth is now mature, about half the size of its parent. I chalk that up to the plant having minimal roots when the pseudobulb developed. Then, when this new growth was almost mature, the plant began making roots. It made lots of roots in a short time! And they grew rapidly! I have continued soaking and fertilizing. About 3 days ago I noticed this newest growth was swelling a new eye to grow. Tonight I looked at the plant and saw there are 3 new eyes swelling! See the attached night closeup with a cheap phone camera.

Why didn't it grow from the front pseudobulb? I don't know. I wonder whether sun needs to hit the plant for a new growth to develop from that spot. My polyester batting between the plant and the wood keeps this part of the rhizome in shade. In the future I would mount a Mcp. directly on the wood.

Why didn't it grow roots before this? Again, I don't know. Does anybody know whether Mcp. form roots at a particular time in their growth cycle, or only once per year, like some Laelias? This particular species gets a very long dry season, with not even dew for months. It would not make sense for the plant to grow roots when water would not normally be available.

Would bare-root culture have been just as good as mounting? I don't know, but I suspect it might have been better than mounting with a moisture pad. The Mcp. I've seen in habitat in México were growing on bare tree trunks with no accumulated leaf litter, nor moss.

I guess I need to get another one and try it bare-root in a basket.

[Optimist]

I only have a Myrmecophilia "type." Rechingerara (Recchara) Honky Tonk Woman (which I think has been renamed to some kind of alphabet soup name that I most likely cannot pronounce, so I won't).

I got it earlier this month, so I cannot be sure who is responsible for the growth. It is in a plastic basket, with a few pieces of wood, and then, I put it into an empty 6 inch ceramic pot, and then into an empty big, like 2 gallon black plastic pot. So it is in a basket, inside a pot, inside of another pot. I have 4 new growth eyes at the bottom, and a flower sheath. The new eyes are lagging behind the cattleyas. Did you notice that? My cattleyas have new leads that are 3-4 inches long by now, and the Shombo has only new eyes.

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My various Cattleya seedlings have been making new growths all winter. This thing sat rootless for 10 months.

[pipsxlch]

I just went out and took some pictures of my Myrmecophilias' growth. Sorry they're not going to be good pictures, it's almost dark here and I'm no photographer. I'll edit them in when I can convince my computer to accept them.

I'd agree with your guess as to them being seasonal when they produce their roots- I've never closely scrutinized it, but mine seem to do a root explosion in the spring and that's it. Maybe if something triggers an off season growth you'll get some limited root growth, though I don't remember noticing this in my one tibicinis that was started as a single back bulb in the summer. It started growing the next spring. They seem to produce new growths only in the spring also.

I took a picture of a clump of pbulbs which started, as you said, from a bract higher up the parent bulb. This particular plant (a Tibiana) has expoded in all directions and never seemed stressed since I got it, so I don't know what triggered it. The clump is high up on the mound, but it continues to grow all over even wher shaded. It actually seems to be either 2 plants or one in which a flower color mutation occurred long ago on one side.

Here in Florida, the plants are typically grown in full sun or close to, commonly mounted- even on palms. Flowering is best when they are rather yellow. One of my tibicinises shows this, when I got it 2 years ago it was banana colored. I'm growing it in partial sun. It didn't bloom last year, though it grew very well. It has several spikes this year. I took a picture of this plant showing older growths that never lost their yellow. Our humidity varies from winter lows in the 40%s to summer highs as much as 90%s. Not much rain in the winter, almost daily rain in the summer.

I typically put these up in baskets with only a very little very coarse media- usually just med-lg charcoal chunks. I prefer wood baskets (despite their rotting in a handful of years) to plastic ones; the plastic just seems to result in unhapper plants- perhaps they still retain too much heat? Haven't tried metal ones. The one tibicinis I mentioned came rooted in an empty clay pot- since it seemed happy, I left it. It's still happy. The do require excellent drainage.

I don't water near as much as you- but then, I'm a lot wetter. I usually don't water in the summer, since the rains take care of it. Fall when the rains stop through spring, once a week if it doesn't rain. Spring starting around the first of March, I up it to 2-3x/week. (spring's our driest season) I water by soaking with a hose. Fertilizer is time release pellets spring and maybe late summer; spray with Ray's Solo a couple times a week to once a month depending on my schedule and laziness spring- late summer. Since they're outside under trees, they get the bird and lizard poop etc. too.

As far as growing bare root, they'd probably love it. And for mounting, I think you could skip the batting. I wonder if the batting or trapped moisture in it is what your plant didn't like? They do love to dry. Maybe try one on your mom's trees?

Mcp.s and Schombocatts (sorry, not going to even try the alphabet soup those are now) are some of my favourites and compose roughly a quarter of my collection. I'm always on the lookout for new species and untidy hybrids. They're very rewarding and just plain cool.

[isurus79]

I grew Mcp tibicinis very bright in Hawaii in a hanging basket with no media. It aborted several new growths before I added Spanish moss to the basket and it grew rapidly after that. This species needs more moisture than you'd think, but it needs to dry off quickly.

FYI- There is a botanical garden near downtown Honolulu that grows tibicinis on the ground in an area approximately 30' x 10'. Its HUGE!!

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Thanks. I decided a while ago not to use a pad for the next mount job. It dries within 12 hours but the fluff keeps sun off the basal meristems.

I may mount the next one on a big branch section I can stand on the ground on a cut surface, and screw a big stainless steel eyelet into the branch so I can lift it when I need to. It occasionally gets too cold here to leave things outside all winter.

I'm going to investigate whether others grow Myrmecophila outside in coastal S Cal - winters can be quite cool and wet.

And I'm going to mount a Schombocatt or Cattyrmecophila or whatever; it's beginning profuse root growth and swelling an eye.

[u bada]

A few stories:

When i was in cancun years ago, we were walking around looking for cenote and i spotted a whole colony of myrme. in trees! They were fairly close to apical growth high up, and fairly shaded!

A friend got a piece from sboe years and years ago, he stuck in on cork and stuck outside in the middle of downtown La (inland by all accounts) where it subjected to high winds (he was in the penthouse of building), high light, and he was too busy to water all that much... now he's in a balmier area, but while not a pretty plant, grew monstrous and flowered regularly with multiple spikes.

My partner's cousin used to be a big orchid grower in hawaii (forget where) and she was showing me at family gathering pictures of hers some 30+ pbs all in spike growing up palm trees! I recall calanthes growing everywhere below as well... I forgot the details, but seemed like she said it rained a lot for a big part of the year...

Now a general comment, I have/ had so many orchids that sit there for so long it's really a mystery as to why exactly. I complained about this in another post regarding a leafless den christyanum, and it now has 3 nubbings that so far so good are growing well... have other stuff, including an interesting epi cross of porpax x secundum that i've had bagged and soaked in kelp repeatedly (time in between) for 6 months with just a fraction of a milimeter of root growth...

That said, I'm just happy your myrme has sprouted so well... i was enlightened when I visited epiphyte78's pad the other week... he simply ties stuff to trees/branches all sorts of catts and dens and epi's and some vandas... pretty much everywhere and the roots spreading out all white and green over the trunks/ branches is phenomenal, especially considering he basically just waters 2x week and they're out in open climate here year round... his myrme's not withstanding. Made me think about maybe it's about the combination of flat and rough surface, or live vs dead wood... obviously it's hard for many of us to play around with live wood but worth thinking about... my friend's myrme is on cork, I feel like that's still one of the best mounting material with being smooth and rough and renewable...

[pipsxlch]

Sorry about the delay, FINALLY got the pictures onto my computer. I don't know if there's anything here that could be useful to you, but here's some of my pure-in-genus Myrs and how they're growing for me.

Here's the empty but for a few chunks of charcoal pot of tibicinis- you can still see some of its old sunblasted yellow on the older pbulbs.


A young grandiflora outgrowing its 4" basket- just some terracotta and charcoal chunks in there along with a little red lava rock


Badly outgrown Tibiana in an 8" basket- I just got a 12" for it, need to drop it in


Other side of same plant


Another tibicinis started as a single backbulb about 8 years ago


A section of growths that originally started strangely high up on the pbulb- this is the Tibiana

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Thank you! Very helpful.