Description

The wild ones in the forest around our Botanic Garden are always giving us surprises. Since I photographed this plant two years ago the flower spike has tripled its number of flowers. Catasetum splendens growing on a Saman tree, Samanea saman. That is ‘Tiramuto’ the mountain in the backdrop. I took these two pictures today.
I suppose I forgot to mention that the location is NW Venezuela. When I came here 13 years ago I was surprised not to see the famous Venezuelan orchids in my area. I have mulled over books of famous orchids from this area for years. Explanation? Fire. Low level grass fires attack this area in the summer. It destroys orchids on low branched trees but the most high in the canopy survive well.