Very rare and this is cool information on them.

Clyde Butcher has some beautiful pictures of them.

https://www.nationalgeographic...DN587yHym9UPPRaf2xj8

Cool! Thanks for sharing.

I love orchids and keep four Phalaenopsises in my study. Phals are very happy in that window; other species, not so much.

I was born and raised in Fla. My Dad and I regularly fished in many of its rivers, lakes, swamps and hammocks, but have ever since my teens lived elsewhere, all over the USA. I grew a wide variety of orchids for about 40 years, both species and hybrids from all across the orchid family.

For about a decade I fussed with a variety of the stunning Masdevallias(from SA cloud forests), alongside larger numbers of the more common prize winning hybrid Cats, Phals plus many others from my own breeding efforts, including some difficult inter-generics. My challenging local climate, steadily increasing utility costs, and the trials of traveling absences and advancing age caused me to turn off their life support systems in my greenhouse just a few years back finally shutting it down. I was heartbroken when the huge orchid nursery/lab I had used/visited in Miami was flattened by a hurricane a decade or so back and never recovered as I had clones of some of their best. My office window is into the now vacant greenhouse, reminding me daily of the pros and cons.

Thank you for the link to the story and the awesome photos, as it recalled my of my having read The Orchid Thief. I joined the NGS as a youth and received a real sheepskin acknowledgement thereof, but they are so far left these days that I studiously avoid seeing them as a waste of my time, just as I do the Scientific American magazine whose title became a self contradiction, and a running bad joke.

The photographer (Carlton) is a friend of the family. He has some photos of natural Florida that are incredible.

Gosh yes. I, too, grew masdevallias for a while. Loved them so much. I also had a Sorcerer’s Apprentice that was amazing to me. Phals are all right, but, boy, I loved my cloud forest orchids as well as the paphs and phrags. Then I had a kid. Maybe someday again.
Thank you for the reminder.

Just bought Mrs. Mike a miniature orchid last night from the HEB...it’s flower is purple with the inner petals and lower petals being all purple and the bigger petals are purple with dark veining.

Wonder if they were fed dyed water?