CubaPLUS Magazine

There is no one who remains indifferent to the exquisite beauty of an orchid, whether it has the most natural and wild appearance, or seems chiseled in detail by a jeweler. Perhaps it is the most appreciated floral gift in the world, as a symbol of tenderness, the delicacy of pure love and even sensuality, due to the bulbs that compose it and which gave rise to its name of Latin origin, from the word orchis (testicles).

In Cuba there are more than 300 subgroups or genera of this species, of which some 35,000 are reported in the world. Although they flourish in varied climates, they say they prefer humid and luminous tropical lands, like our archipelago, to show themselves in all their splendor.

Always beautiful and with varied colors, belonging to the Orchidaceae family, they are herbaceous plants, not parasites as almost everyone believes. They have an autonomous life, since they obtain their nutrients by absorbing them with their roots from rainwater or supplied water, accumulated in the place where they grow.

Many varieties settle directly on terrestrial surfaces. Admired everywhere for their strange-looking and complicated filigree flowers, there are some as large and showy as the Cattleya, while the small Lepanthes fascinate for their millimeter size. In Cuba, orchids are the object of incessant specialized studies, to avoid the loss of varieties in danger of extinction and to gain access to the discovery of new species, which happens happily and are events with great potential to continue happening.

They grow practically in all the Cuban plant formations, but in the mountainous regions they surprise by their more abundant presence, among these, some exclusive varieties of strips between 600 and 700 m of altitude. There are wonderful wild orchids in the mountain complexes of the north and south of Oriente -Sierra Maestra-. The natural gardens of Gran Piedra, close to Santiago de Cuba, are true Edens, but those located in the Guamuhaya central mountain range -Escambray- and in the western Sierras del Rosario and &Oárganos (Guaniguanico) are no less so.

They are not only queens in the mountains. In coastal regions, with sparse and somewhat dry vegetation, some species of Encyclia, Cattleyopsis, Vanilla and Oncidium, among others, are admirable. A dazzling panorama that would have enchanted the great Van Gogh, they offer the lonely north coast of the province of Pinar del Río, there in Guanahacabibes. After crossing a mangrove swamp, an incredible field formed by hundreds of intense yellow flowers of the Oncidiumlemonianum species, superb when they are displayed at their peak, emerges.

A famous and curious autochthonous flower: the Encycliaphoenicia, abounds in dry vegetation with variations in the polychromy of its labellum -from white, or pink, to pale violet- these exclusive flowers exhale an aroma that is very their own between vanilla and chocolate, to some. It is commonly called the chocolate orchid.

Those who advocate the factor called beauty, give preference among the most notable to two: Cattleyopsis lindenii and Cattleyopsisortgiesiana. The scientific institution in charge of the orchid promotion and preservation program is the National Institute of Agricultural Sciences (INCA).