Orchids and Ants - It's the time of the season to feel the love

It's that time again - the end of the dry season that has so many plants and birds around here focusing on procreation.  Is this the season the Zombies had in mind when they recorded "The Time Of The Season"?  Click here to listen while you read about these ant-loving Cow Horn Orchids.

(A little aside - our friend and former neighbor at SteppingStones, Chris Harris, went to school at St. Albans with members of the Zombies.  He knew Zombies before they were cool!)

For weeks I have been watching as the slender green inflorescent spikes on the orchids get longer and longer, almost like watching asparagus grow.  Nothing happens for ages and then suddenly, boom like that, there they are.

Impressive, no?  You might even say hard to miss.  But you would be surprised.

Most of these orchids, which are epiphytes, are way up high in the tree canopy and the clusters of blossoms can get lost in sheer mass of vegetation.

High overhead, the flowers are easy to pass under without noticing.  The flowers on the right are on a long stalk coming out of the dense green plant on the left.

You have to actually look for them at the right time of the season, then you wonder how you could have possibly overlooked them before.

I was using my zoom lens and also cropped the photo to get this image of the flower that was way over my head.  Look at the curlicue petals.  According to various references I consulted, the curly petals are what gives it the common name of cow horn. No, I don't see it either.  

I know of some plants that are closer to the ground and are amenable to ladder-less photography.  The flower stalks are overrun with ants!

Ants are on all the flowers; the dried ones, the fresh ones, the buds.  They get nectar from the green patches on the flowers.  

Myrmecophila, the genus of the orchid, means "ant lover" (myrmex is Greek for ant and phila is Greek for love).  Easy to see that the ants might love the orchid, after all they get sweet nectar from it.  But what do the orchids love about the ants?

The big(ger) picture - This is a small portion of a huge mass of orchids behind our generator shed.  The flower stalks are so long that they are out of the frame.  What I want you to see are the cylindrical pseudobulbs from which the leaves emerge.  They are the key to the ant/orchid relationship.

The ants live in the hollow pseudobulbs.  They pack the pseudobulbs with all kinds of stuff - dead ants and other insects, dirt and sand, plant debris and seeds.  I bet there is ant poo in there, too.  In other words, they provide and deliver a sort of soil to the orchids up high in the tree branches.  They deserve their love.

Whose your daddy?

You can read more about Cow Horn Orchids and see a few photos of other orchids here and here.

Happy Birthday to Me

 

Today is my birthday, the first one I have celebrated in Belize  while living here rather than just visiting.  And I have to tell you it has been great.  The great part part is that it has been nothing special, no grand parties, no fancy feast, no presents of any sort; just good friends, good food, and a good life.  In fact, I had not realized it was my birthday until I got a happy birthday email from my brother and then from my sister.  I really thought that tomorrow was my birthday!  But we had already planned to have Chris down for dinner.  Lloydie knew we were in the market for some fresh fish, so he brought us some nice jack fish fillets that he caught and dressed this morning; only $10 Belize ($5US) for 2 nice sized fish (4 fillets)  caught this morning.  Dennis grilled the fillets, possibly the best tasting fish we have had in Belize.  I made some conch fritters with local ginger, culantro (similar in flavor to cilantro) and lemon grass from the garden, 2 jalepeno peppers.  And rice with brussel sprouts and purple cabbage and jicama slaw.  For dessert we had fresh papaya and pineapple.  Chris arrived bearing the lovely bouquet in the photo above.  The flowers are from the garden at SteppingStones and include shell ginger, red ginger, pink and white periwinkle, a double red hibiscus, single salmon hibiscus.  Simply fabulous!  Looking forward to more birthdays in Belize.

Flowers, Fruits, and Insects

It was a bright, sunny day today with a nice breeze.  A good day to wash clothes and get them on the line to dry.  After getting the clothes hung, I decided to have a wander around and take some photos of various plants that had caught my eye over over the past few days.  One of the brightest spots was this big yellow flower on a sort of morning glory-looking vine.  I don't know what it is, it grows wild along the edge of the marsh.  

The insects seem to like the glands at the center of the flower.

While getting that shot, I noticed that the leaves were infected with a rust fungus.  The undersides of many of the leaves were covered in spore-bearing pustules.

The leaves seemed unaffected by the fungus.

 I had also noticed that the pricklypear cactus (Opuntia sp.) was flowering.  Numerous buds and spent flowers were obvious.

You can see the shadow of my clothes on the line.

Tomorrow, this tightly closed bud will open.

 

Wish I had gotten this shot yesterday; it looks a little wilted here at mid-day.

 

I was struck by the intense burgundy color of the new leaves on this mango tree.  

The variety is white mango.  It hasn't fruited yet, so I don't know how they taste.

 Behind the mango, at the edge of the marsh are these massive ferns.  They are over 7 feet tall!

 

What looks like burned tips is really the spore-bearing portion of the fronds that are covered in velvety spores.

 Summer before last, or maybe even longer ago than that, I planted a Moon Flower Vine at our house in Minnesota.  It grows wild here!  The white flower to the left is one that was wide open last night.  They open for only 1 night.  I want to plant some next to the cabana so I can see what pollinates them during the night.  There are 2 buds on the right side of the photo.  This too, is in the morning glory family.

 

We planted this tamarind tree about 6 years ago.  It got a rough start and was moved to several different spots before we found a place it likes.  It is beginning to bear pods in significant numbers.  These will fill out and when ripe contain large hard seeds covered in very tangy paste.  I love to eat them straight off the tree.

 

Last week this lime tree was covered in blossoms and now there are clusters of little fruits.

 

And some bigger fruits, too. This tree bears small numbers of limes throughout the entire year.

 

Another citrus tree we planted, a sweet orange, is putting on new growth and will flower soon.  The aphids on the new growth are being tended by ants.  We will wash these off with soapy water from our grey water system.  Otherwise, the trees won't bear many fruit.

 

I love to walk around and see what is growing, blooming, fruiting, etc.  Never a dull moment here in the tropics.