Pleurothallis of some kind - help

[panam]

I can't wait to see what else you end up with. I have moved to minis for space reasons. I love everything about them EXCEPT the difficulty I have photographing them. Ah, well, there are worse problems in the world!! I'm glad they ended up in capable hands.

[eorchids]

Restrepia trichoglossa for me too. Beautiful, I love it.

[Dorsetman]

I just love it when several people - well at least two - confidently tell you, yes its X, and yes its Y...
Restrepia I knew straight away, but as to which one, I have little idea. I do remember a display at a UK show, could have been the Pleurothallid Society display, with supposedly 10 or so different species of Restrepia on show, and most of them looked the same to my ignorant eyes....not that I am knocking them, they are cute, even if a little difficuloty to distinguish except to the real Restrepia fan.

[serama]

Thanks for your thought on this one, Tony. Since I've not grown any of these before now, I'm relying on those who have to identify them. In going through the tags, I did not have a tag for Rest. trichoglossa, but do have the vendor tag for Rest. brachypus 'B'. Since this orchid is growing on 'A stick', I visited the vendor and he did not have this particular orchid in his listing. A google search did return this link with the Rest. trichoglossa and it is much closer to the bloom I have. I wonder if the vendor sent the wrong tag with this plant originally?

I'm going to make a new tag with the Restrepia trichoglossa name as I feel it is correct. Thanks so much.

You're welcome Bruce.

As I said, I'm pretty sure it is Rest. trichoglossa ... but Geoff is right, the majority of these little things look the same at first sight (it's no wonder there are so many mislabelled restrepias in the trade). A good source for identifying these is Colin Howe's website, who holds the national collection of restrepias in the UK (National Collection of Restrepia Orchids).

BTW, most resprepias will grow into fairly nice specimen plants that get completely covered in flowers, so don't be tempted to divide them often. I find they grow particularly well on treefern mounts, but I also have a few in small pots with either small bark and perlite or sphagnum and perlite mixes. They grow well in the sphagnum mix, but this particular medium needs to be changed every year.

[pavel]

A good source for identifying these is Colin Howe's website, who holds the national collection of restrepias in the UK (National Collection of Restrepia Orchids). I've bought quite a few plants from him, mostly of crosses he made and registered himself.

Another resource you might try is The Pleurothallid Alliance ( Contact Us ) -- in particular, Lynn O'Shaughnessy (can't remember if she maintains the PA site in its entirety or is "just" one of the main contributors of information). In any event, Lynn is another recognized Pleurothallid authority ( Lynn's Pleurothallids ). She has an huge collection of pleuros (over 2000) and is frequently prevailed upon for pleuro identification.