Porroglossum dreisei

This is another species from Ecuador and a strange species indeed.  The Porroglossums are all oddities because of their moveable, insect-trapping lip, which when disturbed snaps up.  Several of the photos show flowers with the lips both open and closed.  Porroglossum dreisei is even odder than the other species in the genus with its clown-shaped blooms.  They are large as Porroglossums go, 1.5 cm on long flower spikes that produce a succession of flowers on 4 cm plants.

Porroglossum driesei

The Porroglossums are a strange groups of orchids.  They all have hinged, insect trapping lips and two of the pictures below show this species with the lip open and closed.  Porroglossum dreisei is from Ecuador and blooms repeatedly on the same flower spikes, so that it is seldom out of bloom.  The plant is 4 cm tall, the flower spikes are 12 cm long and the flowers 1.5 cm, oddly shaped and oddly colored.

Porroglossum dreisei

The last post was of a Porroglossum.  Here is another, this time Porroglossum dreisei from Ecuador and another small species.  The plant is 4 cm, the flower spikes 12 cm and the flowers 1.5 cm and blooming successively, several to a spike.  Like the other Porroglossum species this has a moveable lip that snaps up and traps an insect against the column effecting pollination and I've included pictures of the flowers with the lip both open and shot.  I thought about titling the post "Arms Akimbo" since the flowers look like a little man with an elf hat and his hands on his hips.