Mystery Panama Orchid

[Connie Star]

My husband photographed this orchid at a farm in the lowlands of Bocas del Toro Panama. It had fallen out of a tree and then been cultivated by the owner of the farm. It's striking. Does anyone know what it is? I'm guessing it's in the epidendrum group but I don't know.

[PaphMadMan]

Appears to be a gesneriad rather than an orchid, genus Columnea perhaps.

[Fernando]

Yep!

[estación seca]

I agree. You should get into collecting these, too. Many different genera with amazing flowers.

[Connie Star]

Thanks folks!

[Fernando]

Amazing how many things fall from the trees!

[SFLguy]

Actually being in Panama, we saw many plants that had fallen from the trees or bushes they were on simply because they were either twig epiphytes and the twig had broken off or the branch they had been on was chewed through by ants and subsequently rotted.
We saw everything from Encyclia vespa to some Myrmecophila (or whatever it's been updated to) to tillies to ferns and even these small circular wind dispersed sticky plants on the floor attached to their broken branches

[Connie Star]

Well I googled gesneriads and they don't look anything like this plant. However, on closer inspection of the pictures I think I see separate stigmas and styles so they would not be orchids. Any other idea what they might be?

[estación seca]

It is indeed a Columnea, or whatever that is called now, in family Gesneriaceae. Central America is thick with them and the genus is almost all epiphytic.

columnea at DuckDuckGo

[PaphMadMan]

It absolutely is a gesneriad. If you only looked at a Cattleya for comparison would you think a Dendrochilum was an orchid? Gesneriads are nearly as diverse as orchids. Take a look at Columnea specifically.