Maxillariella vulcanica

According to IOSPE page (link), this species is from Ecuador on a volcano at elevations of 1500 to 2000m.  It was originally described as Maxillaria volcanica.  I got this from Mundiflora in October 2015.  It quickly established and started to grow immediately, and it has been flowering for 3 months or so, and the number of flowers are gradually increasing.  I couldn't find any information about the culture of this species, so I contacted Marni Turkel.  She has been always helpful and kindly got information about this species from her friend, Dan Newman of Hanging Gardens, who has seen the natural habitat of this species, and has been growing it for more than 15 years.  Dan gave me a detailed description.  Thank you, Dan!  His winter minimum temp is around 13C (55F), and mentioned that it seems to be ok with higher or lower temperature.  Indeed, I'm growing at lower temperature; the temperature stays constant at 20C (68F) during the day and at 10C (50F) during the night in the same condition as Madevallia racemosa (details of the environment is in this post).  Dan mentioned that he saw Pleurothallis penelops growing near M. volcanica, so I'm sure that I'm growing at well below the optimum temperature.  I'll keep close eyes on this plant, and I'll probably move it to a higher temperature.  Currently it is in sphagnum moss: small bark = 1:1 in a terra cotta pot, but I probably decrease the amount of sphagnum moss once it becomes a bit bigger.




The flowers look similar to Maxillariella arbuscula.  Here is a discussion about this topic in Orchids Forum.  Bill Pinnix of Seal Rock Orchids, who is very knowledgeable about all kinds of orchids, told me that one difference between M. vulcanica and M. arbuscula is the pseudobulb; the former has spotted pseudobulbs, and the later has green pseudobulbs.  You can compare the following phot with the image of M. arbuscula (link to the image) from IOSPE page (link to the description).



The growth habit is quite interesting.  There are long growths without pseudobulbs (see the smaller right most growth below), and it also produce the growths with pseudobulbs.   According to Dan, you can root cuttings of growths.  Several other Maxillariella species seem to have similar growth habits.