On May 4 I was hiking in the El Yunque forest. In my hike came across two large trees that had fallen. One was largely intact, the other had fallen on a road and had been cut in pieces. When I saw them I could not help thinking of what happened when an ancient Chinese emperors died. When the emperor died, a number of servants and other people were sacrificed to accompany the emperor in his afterlife. In the case of these trees, they were laden with epiphytic orchids which face certain death in the forest floor. In the tree that fell in an open area most orchids died from sunburn. In the one that fell in a shady spot, the orchids are still alive but will eventually die when the trunk rots away, There were Lepanthes, Pleurothallis, Ornithidium, Jaquiniella, Epidendrum as well as others I could not ID. I didn't collect any of them, the forest is in a protected area and collection is forbidden. Also these orchids live in a habitat that provides very, very high humidity along with brisk air movement, this is not a combination that the average orchid grower can easily provide.
Showing posts with label tree. Show all posts
Showing posts with label tree. Show all posts
Wednesday, May 13, 2015
Friday, September 27, 2013
Puertorican parrots eating west indian tree fern stems
The Puerto Rican parrot (Amazona vittata) is known to eat the
leaves, fruits or seeds of more than forty species of plants. In the Rio Abajo forest the parrots sometimes consume
the stems of the fronds of the tree ferns of the genus Cyathea. The effect of the
parrots’ activity is to completely defoliate the ferns. The parrots consume all stems, from very
young ones that are starting to unfurl to the oldest ones. The ferns eventually produce new leaves and
recuperate fully from the parrots foraging activities. The birds don’t eat the whole frond, just
parts of the stems. I find the fact that the parrots were using the
tree fern stems as food remarkable given that the birds that have been released into the wild since the reintroduction program began were
given a wide variety of wild leaves, fruits and seeds before the release, but
not tree fern fronds.
Saturday, September 21, 2013
Maxillaria brunnea Linden & Rchb. f. 1854, near Mindo, Ecuador, "in situ" on a fallen tree by the road.
During my visit to Ecuador, I was able to see many orchids, this includes many that were on trees and branches that had fallen by the roadside. This is the case of this orchid. A huge storm had toppled trees and broken branches some weeks before my visit to the Mindo area. This plant was growing, on the side of a tree that had fallen by the roadside. The trunk of the tree had several orchids but the Maxillaria was the only one that was blooming.
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