Porroglossum rodrigoi

The Porroglossums are all miniature plants and all have an insect-trapping lip that springs up and mashes the insect against the column when the insect visits the flower, thus effecting pollination.  Two of the photos show the flower with the lip open and closed.  Porroglossum rodrigoi is a micro-miniature species from Colombia with beautifully patterned 3 cm leaves, 9 cm flower spikes that produce a few 1.5 cm flowers in succession.  The species is named for a Colombian orchid collector and requires cool temperatures to trive.  My plant is grown on a small piece of cedar shingle with some moss.

Maxillaria sophronitis

Also known as Ornithidium sophronitis, this small creeping plant is known for its brightly colored red-orange flowers.  The tiny growth, each with a little pseudobulb, sheathing leaves and a single leaf at the top of the pseudobulb, is less than 5 cm and the single flowers are only 1.5 cm.  The species is from Colombia and Venezuela and requires cool temperatures and high light.  Even then I find it hard to get it to bloom with more than a few flowers at a time.

Spilotantha chaetostoma

This small Masdevallia is from Ecuador.  It has been reclassified and placed in a new genus, but is still best known by its old name.  The flowers are tiny, only 1.5 cm but there are four to five flowers per spike and when the plant is in bloom it looks like it has a cloud of little white insects hovering over it.  The spikes are 15 cm and the plant 6 cm.

Lankesterella ceracifolia

This micro-miniature orchid is related to the Cattleyas and is from Argentina and Brazil. It belongs to a genus of small orchids that includes around 10 species. This species has a rosette of succulent leaves and flowers that are only a half centimeter in size. It blooms in the spring and seems to do best on a rough mount of some kind.

Mediocalcar versteegii 'Mountainside'

I've seen this species under two names and am not sure which is correct.  I purchased it as Mediocalcar versteegii, but have also seen it under the name Mediocalcar uniflorum.  In either case it is from New Guinea and is a rambling plant, each new growth coming from the top of the previous growth.  It blooms late winter to early spring and the flowers are not long-lasting.  I have my plant in a pot, but most of it is not in the pot and doesn't need to be.

Three Orange Saltatrices Masdevallias

None of these plants had a lot of flowers and since they are all from the same group and the same color I thought I'd do them in one post.  The species in the Saltatrices groupof Masdevallias have tubular flowers, bright colors, glandular hairs lining the inside of the flower and a distinct bulge at the bast of the flower tube.  The photos of the three shown here display these features.  The three species in order are Masdevallia glomerosa, a species I've not posted before, Masdevallia mendozae, and Masdevallia hirtzii, all from Ecuador.  All three are small, the plants growing to about 10 cm with 3-4 cm flowers.