Laelia fidelensis Pabst

[Rosim_in_BR]

Here it is, flowering again this year, now in the right season. Laelia fidelensis is a very singular species among the Brazilian Laelias for its pointed lip and somewhat creeping habit. The science continues not knowing where in Brazil the original plant was found and so the specie continues lost. It is possible that its habitat have been destroyed and, in a stroke of luck, the last specimen ended up saved and, successfully reproduced, proved beyond any doubt it is a true species for our joy!

Here are the flowers:
Laelia fidelensis Pabst on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

And here the plant and flowers:
Laelia fidelensis Pabst on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

[whygreenberg]

Wow...That's absolutely stunning, Mauro. Really gorgeous!! I'm totally in love!

[Tindomul]

Nice, how can it be sure that this is a species. Perhaps it is a hybrid? I refer to the example of Vanilla tahitensis whose place of origin was sought out in vain, and a recent paper publised in the American Journal of Botany descibes its hybrid nature giving reason why it was never found in the wild.

[Rosim_in_BR]

Originally Posted by Tindomul

Nice, how can it be sure that this is a species. Perhaps it is a hybrid? I refer to the example of Vanilla tahitensis whose place of origin was sought out in vain, and a recent paper publised in the American Journal of Botany descibes its hybrid nature giving reason why it was never found in the wild.

Tindo, the original plant was selfed and then the next generation selfed again and/or also intercrossed and so on. All the progeny since the very first plant found up to now has the same characteristics shown by the mother plant demonstrating beyond any reasonable doubt that it is a pure species. If it were not, right at the first generation it would be visible in some flowers two very different sets of characteristics (and countless in between), clearly showing what the parents were and the hybrid nature. But this never happened. On the contrary, the genetic variation is very narrow in this species!

[Cookiemonster]

I've had my eye on this one for quite a long long time- I wanted to ask you Mauro on the difficulty of growing this plant. Do you grow it in moss or ?
Also with the majority of your purpuratas do you grow them in moss or ?
Btw your orchid posts are killing me, too much

[Rosim_in_BR]

Originally Posted by Cookiemonster

I've had my eye on this one for quite a long long time- I wanted to ask you Mauro on the difficulty of growing this plant. Do you grow it in moss or ?
Also with the majority of your purpuratas do you grow them in moss or ?
Btw your orchid posts are killing me, too much

Suzie, I consider L. fidelensis of low degree of difficulty. I mean, it is not easy and also not difficult, but it presents some difficulty. I tried it in several different media like moss, hard wood, and several different mixes involving coconut fiber, charcoal and shredded pinecone and or bark, all with poor results. It seems to me that it does good in tree fern fiber or mounted on a tree fern stick. The plant above is grown mounted on one of those sticks. The stick is in the pot, which is filled with tree fern fiber. But, it is noticeable that the roots don't search the humidity in the pot. On the contrary, they seem to prefer the drier, upper parts of the stick. So, I consider it not difficult, but also not easy to grow.
As for my purpuratas, I had all of them in a mix of coconut fiber (50%), shredded pinecone or bark (40), and charcoal (10%). They do well in this mix. But, I started changing all of them to moss and have now more or less half in this medium. I'm changing because almost all of my other plants are already in moss and I need to standardize to facilitate the watering. I hope that in the next months I can have all my purpuratas also in moss. But, the experience has shown that it grows very well in the mixes above as well in tree fern fiber.

[Chubidubi]