Anguloa

This genus is found on the forest floor at high elevations from Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru. Anguloa is closely related to Lycaste and Ida, and can hybridize with Lycaste.

Description

Tulip orchids are rather large terrestrial and sometimes epiphytic plants with fleshy pseudobulbs longer than 20 cm. The long, lanceolate and plicate leaves of a full-grown Anguloa can be more than 1 m long. Two to four leaves grow from the base of each pseudobulb. The leaves are deciduous, and are shed at the start of each new growth.

The flowers of these orchids have a strong scent of cinnamon. They are of waxy appearance and are (in wild species) either of two colors, depending on the species – greenish white, or yellow to red. A single flower per inflorescence arises from the base of each new pseudobulb. The white tulip orchids have six inflorescences per pseudobulb, the other can produce up to twelve inflorescences. The sepals have a bulbous shape, resembling a tulip; hence the common name. The lip is three-lobed. The column has four pollinia.

Pollination

When touched, the lip of the flower rocks back and forth inside the cup-shaped flower as if the lip was a child in a cradle. As a result, it is sometimes known as a cradle orchid. Similarly, it has been known in Columbia as cuna de Venus (cradle of Venus). When an orchid bee pollinator lands on the opening of the flower, its weight tips the flower forwards, and the lip moves down to allow the bee inside the flower. Having moved into the flower, the change in the centre of gravity tips the flower back, flipping the lip upwards, pressing the bee against the rostellum and sticky pollinia. On a return visit, the same maneuver presses the pollinia into the flower's stigma.