Dear Ogd's and David Although culture is not the main push for my reference site IOSPE [www.orchidspecies.com] all the elements to clue you in are there. There are now 6676 species in 670 genera and each species has a habitat description which gives the clues to if the orchid in question should be potted or mounted and if potted if it should be in a terestrial mix or for an epiphyte. The elevations are there which gives the basic temperature requirements. The site lists if the orchid is found in shade to full sun and gives a bloom time so one knows when to expect the flowering. It also lists if the orchid is from an area with even year-round rain and temps or if it is seasonal so one should be able to know if a dry season or winter cool is nessesary. Please check out the site if you are not aware of it. If the orchid is available commercially then the chance that it is listed is very high. Dr De Vogel and friends at Leiden University in the Netherlands have graciously given access to their orchid photo base and so many new genera have been added from Malesia [ a biogeographical region straddling the boundary of the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones]. I will also be adding many new Colombian species from my great friend Arturo Carillo who just paid me a visit here in Key West. We spent a week surveying the Encyclia tampense populations here in the keys. I have been concerned that the last few hurricanes may have decimated the populations here which are small and widely scattered, but after searching through several spots that are known to me I am assured that E tampense still has a safe foothold here in the keys even though it is most always found very low on trees and were all totally submerged in salt water in the mini tsunami that we had here a year and a half ago. It is encouraging to see that many new seedlings are sprouting up even a little further out than they had previously so it seems that at this time the good habitats are actually increasing. On the other hand Vanilla barbellata [the snake orchid] which has been well represented here did suffer much more due to the salt water flooding and are just beginning to recover from being inundated. The 6 plants that I have been monitoring over the years all died back from large spread out plants to very small plants that do not seem to be blooming. I hope that they have time to recover before another hurricane pushes through the area. I can also attest that all Bletia purpurea that I have monitored here in the keys are gone. I guess they are not very salt water tolerant. One other species that has been affected greatly here in the keys is Oceoclades maculata, an invasive orchid from Africa that had been getting a pretty good foothold here. All plants that were found under the elevation of 4 feet [most of the keys] have disappeared, including a massive colony that was on Boca Chica under Australian pines. Suprisingly it was the only understory plant that would grow in the pine needle humus that forms below them. So all the scarified land here with Australian pines are now barren wastelands again. Happy growing!!!! Jay Pfahl www.orchidspecies.com
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