Encyclia tampensis

[tim abbott]

I believe the orchid is an Encyclia tampensis, but I don't know. I found it today walking in some woods. The branch the plant had chosen was dead and had fallen on the ground. This little plant was part of the main plant and had broken off. My question is how to I keep it alive? I have it sitting in moist orchid moss now. I live in Cape Canaveral Fl and have all my orchid plants outside. Will this grow in a terra cotta pot? Thank you

[Keysguy]

That does certainly look like tampensis Tim. Where are you located?

Here's a couple of pics of some native in-situ plants I took last year near where I am.

[tim abbott]

Thank you Keysguy, I live on a barrier island in central Brevard county Florida where the City of Cape Canaveral is located. I have a ficus and a Schefflera tree, I may need to get some orchid bark for mounting it.

[estación seca]

You could also attach it to one of your trees.

[Keysguy]

Originally Posted by estación seca

You could also attach it to one of your trees.

Correct. I use a gob of "liquid nails". Squeeze out a good gob onto the tree. Let it sit about 5 minutes to start to set up and then just press the plant into it at the pseudobulbs. Check it in 5 more minutes to make sure it stayed there. Should be good for a small plant like tampensis. For larger plants I do the same method but might tie something around the plant and tree to make sure it stays there until the goop has totally set up. Make sure the tree you select has good rough bark. Most all of the native tampensis I find down here are on black mangrove.

[tim abbott]

I did the youtube thing & got some ideas & remembered I have an old rugged catface off of a turpentine pine tree I got in Levy county Fl. I used mesh tape & put a clump of orchid moss between the roots & the mesh tape. There is a large Schefflera above this area on a protected northwest corner of the house.

[tim abbott]

Sorry I messed up the photos.

[Roberta]

You didn't mess up the photos... this "sideways" thing is a "feature" of the ancient software that underlies the website. We're all used to turning our heads to view photos.

To make them orient correctly, if you save the photo to your PC, open it in an editor, rotate it 90 deg and save, then rotate it back and save, that seems to help in most cases.

[Keysguy]

I use a free app called FastStone Photo Resizer.
Convert your photos thru the app and they'll come out correct when you post. I suspect it is particularly helpful if they were taken with a phone.

[DirtyCoconuts]

well done and great job saving it!