Orchid of the day: Prosthechea mariae (formerly Encyclia mariae)

Prosthechea mariae

A) Zooming in a beautiful flower

I first posted about our Prosthechea mariae on February 2, 2014. At that time, this specimen only produced one flower stem with three flowers. Over the years, we have two then three flower stems. Today we have three flower stems, and for the first time, we have ten beautiful flowers.

B) With many orchids blooming at around the same time, I missed taking earlier photos of the flower buds. But here is our specimen on June 4th. Clearly we had ten flowers developing this year.

C) Another view of our P. mariae. Three buds, in the upper left, were still unopened at this time.

This orchid, a native of Mexico, was discovered in 1937 and in our care, we notice that it is quite sensitive to heat. So we keep it indoors during the hot and humid Baltimore summers. Prosthechea mariae has greenish yellow flowers with a very prominent white lip with green veins at the base. We look forward to having more flowers in the future.

D) By June 11, all flowers were in full bloom.

E) Another 'close up' of our specimen. A very beautiful flower.

F) Enjoying a relatively mild Baltimore summer, very briefly, of course.

G) This orchid was actual a 'rescue'. Arne saw it hanging in a local gardening shop. It has been doing very well since. Here's a link to my post from July 2014. 

I hope you enjoyed my post today. Look for our Prosthechea vitellina, another Prosthechea in our collection. Have a great week.