Catasetums Blooming

[Curtis2010]

Originally Posted by glengary54

Curtis - I'm curious, are you collecting your plants from the wild?

Short answer: No, normally I don't collect from the wild. I typically don't collect any from the wild unless they have fallen from their perch and are going to die anyway.

Longer explanation:

But what is "normal" has a rather short history for me - I just started trying to sort out the bewildering array of orchids here a few weeks ago and have no prior background with orchids.

I live on a river that runs through the mountains and jungles of Guatemala. I can just walk or paddle around my place and find new varieties every day. For example, the larger of the Catasetums I posted is a naturally occurring orchid near my boat house -- judging from the size it has been there quite a long time (It was there when I arrived over 5 years ago). The smaller Catasetum, as you can see, is mounted. I am not sure if it was originally collected or imported because my wife originally imported a refrigerated container -- yup, as in "container ship" -- containing hundreds of plants.

So, in addition to the many naturally occurring varieties I also have many imported/hybrid varieties. I may have to break down and buy Orchid Wiz just to keep my head from exploding!

[Curtis2010]

The large naturally occurring Catasetum at my place opened up it's blooms while I was gone for a few days. Got a pic of it when I returned, blooms have started to wilt just bit. These blooms are normally solid green, but this batch is yellow. As I understand, the male and female flowers of the Catasetum are differentiated from each other. I assume these are male flowers? And, the less showy green ones are female?

Due to the solid green flowers I assumed this plant was viridiflavum, but maybe not?