Lycaste skinneri (Bateman ex Lindley) Lindley (1843.)

   Native to Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. The white form ("Monja Blanca") is the national flower of Guatemala.

   L. skinneri is dedicated to George Ure Skinner (1804-1897), rich merchant and ardent collector of orchids he discovered then exported from South America to Britain in the heydays of orchid mania of the XIXth century.

"A very vigorous and variable species with infinite varieties.
The pink 'rosea' form is commonest, the 'alba' the most sought after.
The type 'armeniaca' with an orange lip is a curiosity, and the small-flowered type 'Ipala' is almost a subspecies with 'rosea' and 'alba' forms.
Grows epiphytically and lithophytically, high in cool cloud forests with almost constant mist or rain and dense shade.
In cultivation it tolerates drier, sunnier conditions but must be kept cool."

Quoted from Oakley, H. F.: Lycaste species: the essential guide

Lycaste skinneri
forma 'rosea' and 'alba'

Lycaste skinneri
forma 'armeniaca'

Maxillaria deppei Loddiges (1830.)

Lycaste fimbriata Poepping et Endlicher (1836.)

Lycaste macrophylla (Poepping et Endlicher) Lindley (1836.)

Lycaste hybrid clone 'Shoal Haven'

Here is a species that once you have smelled it you will never forget it.
Maxillaria tenuifolia grows in Mexico, Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Costa Rica. It has grass-like leaves (tenuifolia means "narrow-leaved" in Latin) and yellowish to bright red blooms. The lip is lighter, with red spots.

The neat thing about this plant is it smells like "coconut cream pie". This scent is emanated from the hairs of the lip, which in fact are microscopic bottles full of a true, highly complex "power drink", extremely rich in sugars, vitamines, plant hormones and scented compounds.

When insects grazing on these hairs smear their backs against the column the sticky pollinia get attached to them - and removed by the next flower, resulting in pollination. On succesful pollination those microscopic "power drink bottles" become detached within only several minutes - rendered freely available to small insects. (Which due to their small size could not pollinate the flower, anyway ...)

It has a creeping rhizome and old individuals cultivated mounted on generously sized supports by time can form a colony consisting of pehaps hundreds of pseudobulbs, able to produce dozens if not hundreds of flowers simultaneously.

Maxillaria grandiflora (Humboldt, Bonpland et Kunth) Lindley (1832.)

Native to high altitude cloud forests of Colombia, Ecuador, Venezuela, Guayana, Peru and Bolivia.

Large epiphyte; flowers are up to 15 cm (6 inches) across.

Since its discovery this orchid had been tossed around in four genera, including Dendrobium, Broughtonia, Lycaste and finally Maxillaria. Even there it has two invalid synonyms, M. eburea Lindley and M. lehmannii Reichenbach f.

Lycaste macrobulbon (Hooker) Lindley (1846.)

Deciduous epiphytic or terrestrial in the wet montane forests of Colombia, between 1,200-1,600 m altitude.

Parent of many important Lycaste and Agulocaste (Aguloa X Lycaste) hybrids.