For those who enjoy Oliver's mini-travelogs like I do, I would like to concur with him that finding orchids in presumably prime habitats is not by any means a sure thing. My experience in Central America and Mexico has been like his with speciation being at best repetitive and of interest only to advanced botanists. "Showy" plants were to be found relocated to private gardens and park entrances. The Costa Rican cloud forests were an exception with various Pleurothallids to be spotted for those sharp of eye with an interest in this group. The State of Oaxaca in Mexico was a great disappointment. On a trip to the Sierra we passed a marvelous dry landscape with many species of succulents and the anticipation of what might be seen in the managed high forest was great. One Encyclia (vespa?) growing terrestrially was all we saw. The open ground in the sub-alpine scrub had patches of exquisite blue Gentian sp., a marvelous sight, but no orchids. The trip down out of the forest was by a different route and as we got onto roads more obviously used handmade signs started to appear with the word "trucas--->". Those whose Spanish was poor made a vague association with trucks and assumed the signs were directing the logging vehicles. Eventually the forest cleared and a final "trucas--->" sign led to a group of buildings on a hillside (truck stop?). This was a TROUT (trucas) farm! The fish were raised in pools fed by cold water from the high forest and the owners ran a restaurant in association with it. Everything on the menu, soup, salad, entree was trout fixed in one way or the other....and freshly caught too! Dessert escaped the trout theme. The trout operation was interesting especially a large albino specimen that was being spared the pot. But there were more surprises for there in window boxes along the veranda were the elusive choice orchids we had hoped to see while hiking. Encyclia (Prosthechea) vitellina, Rhynchostele cervantesii, Rych. aptera and others were gloriously in flower. Again, these plants had been salvaged or collected in the forests and reestablished where they could be enjoyed. Without entering into a controversy over this practice, suffice it to say that in this case the plants in question were still basically in their native environment, vigorous and healthy. The bottom line here is that the orchids are there but finding them in situ requires a great deal of time and foot work. Bernard C. Gerrard
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