I Speak For The Trees

Hi and welcome back!  As promised, January is Andean Orchid Month.  Pictured this month will be a wide range of the orchids that grow here in Ecuador, as well as some excellent hybrids produced by Ecuagenera, a home-grown orchid company devoted to orchid conservation and propagation.  Let’s kick off the month with Pleurothallis, one of Ecuador’s many species of micro-orchids.  The flowers of this diminutive member of the Orchidaceae are just 1cm long.  This specimen is growing wild on the mossy trunk of a tree in the Mindo-Nambillo Protected Forest, Mindo, Pichincha Province.  Pleurothallis is a huge genus, with more than 1,000 species of micro-orchids contained within it.