Orchidarc stories

The Fall

As a result of climate change and human activity, Mexican orchids have faced problems they did not evolve to survive on their own. Irregular drought and rain seasons rot and dry them while the ecosystem that supports them decays with each irregular weather season. The best example of this is tree rot, epiphyte orchids that live on trees may cause weakened branches to break making the orchids fall on the ground. There, stagnant water, excesive sunlight exposure and lack of air movement will make orchids rot or dry as is the example behind. This orchid may have been 10 years old, a rare miracle that was lost to a fall.

Dichaea Neglecta:

Sometimes, orchids lose roots due to adverse weather conditions or lack of nutrients. Sometimes it is the bark they are holding on to that fails as was the case of this Dichaea Neglecta. Stronger than usual winds were able to shear the roots from the trunk this orchid was on causing it to fall on the forest floor. In this case, the orchid’s roots did not allow us to place it back in situ. We decided to rehabilitate it at our home greenhouse where we have 300+ orchids.

Rescue in Oaxaca

In Mexico, orchids inhabit a great variety of ecosystems and climates. In the more arid state of Oaxaca, we are delighted to see the Genus Prostechea, Rynchostele, Govenia, Laelia and many more. Irregular rain has caused bark rot on trees weakening their ability to hold orchids making them fall. We have also seen full branches fall during rain seasons. Most of the plants we rescued were still strong enough to be reintroduced in situ.

An unusual rescue

We rescued this Acineta Bakeri from a river… From its size, we can thell that this orchid was at least 8 years old. It fell from a tree that had branches directly above the river. The weight of the Acineta was too much for the branch holding it and it flowed downstream until it was stopped by these rocks. When we found it, it had already been on the river for around 3-5 days. At that point, most of the plant was rotten and only a few pseudobulbs with leaves remained. We removed the rotten parts and reintroduced to a stonger branch.

Many more to come…

Unfortunately, our labour is needed more and more every year. While we are amazed at how resilient the environment is it is clear that we can do something to help preserve the natural beauty of our world.