The Peruvian Orchid Club


Chlorea pavonii Lindley 1840 Masdevallia caudata Lindl. 1833 foto© Eric Hunt, www.orchidphotos.org	About Peru Peru is one of the most biologically mega diverse countries in the world. Out of the 247 countries in our planet, 17 of them concentrate 80% of the biological diversity of the world. Among them Peru is the third one most bio diverse country! Peru is also the forth country with the widest areas of tropical forests and the ninth country in the world with the widest forest surface. Peru is located in the central western region of South America, with a territorial expanse of 1.285 million Km2 out of which 756,866 Km2 are Amazon forests making Peru the second largest Amazonic country after Brazil. It limits in the north with Ecuador (1,420 Km.) and Colombia (1,496 Km.), in the south with Chile (160 Km.), and in the east with Brazil (1,560 Km.) and Bolivia (900 Km.). To the west Peru has a coast of 3500 km. with the Pacific Ocean.	Browse here the new additions to our web site New picture of genus Aa! New Orchid species! Stanhopea marizaiana Jenny 2003 New Orchid species! Stanhopea manriquei Jenny 2004
Pleurothallis navicularis Lindley 1859		Masdevallia triangularis Lindley 1846
Rodriguezia secunda Kunth 1816 foto© Eric Hunt, www.orchidphotos.org Pleurothallis cordata (Ruiz & Pavón) Lindley 1830	Peru is divided by three natural and strategic regions: Peruvian Sea, Peruvian Andes and Peruvian Amazonia. These three natural regions are crisscrossed by 11 eco regions: Cold sea, tropical sea, coastal desert, equatorial dry forest, Pacific tropical forest, mountainous steppe, puna (very high steppes), bleak plateau, highland rainforest, lowland rainforest and palm tress savannah. The coastal deserts (with 3500 km. of the most amazing and wild beaches) are crossed by 40 valleys. Peru is watered by 1,007 rivers that descend from more than 6,800 meters high in the Andes. These rivers crisscross Peru 80,000 Km. of waterways with a volume of 2000 trillion cubic meters of water. This amazonic, Andean and coastal rivers are born from the melting glaciers in the Andes that form 12,201 lakes and lagoons. The Peruvian coastal climate unlike other tropical and subtropical zones of South America is configured by the Humboldt current which bathes the Peruvian coasts with frozen waters brought from Antarctica. Another phenomenon that maintains the Peruvian coastal waters frigid is the upwelling of very deep cold waters from the continental abysses formed in front of the western coasts of South America. This flow of cold waters drags plankton that feeds the lowest part on the marine nutritional chain. It is thanks to this upwelling phenomenon that the Peruvian sea is one of richest in the world.	Pleurothallis pedunculata (Klotzsch) Rchb. f. 1849 Pleurothallis matudana C. Schweinfurth 1938, foto© Klaus Elsses
Anacheilium vespa (Vell.) Pabst, Moutinho & A.V. Pinto 1981 Restrepia guttulata Lindley 1836 foto© Eric Hunt, www.orchidphotos.org Masdevallia welischii Luer 1979	The cold ocean water creates a mild weather for the Peruvian coast where precipitation depends of the latitude. Most of the time the Peruvian coast is one of the driest deserts in the world with very few precipitations with exception of the northern area of the country close to the equatorial line. El Niño is a special case where warm waters from the western Pacific Ocean migrate east and southward as far as the northern coastal regions of Peru. Strong El Niño effects can largely influence Peru’s environment generating disturbances to the rich fishing industry as well as the blooming cycle of orchids, draughts and flooding. Recent archaeological discoveries suggest that the end of the Mochica culture could be generated by a strong El Niño that lasted for several years. If we combine the various microclimates determined by the latitudes and we add the altitude of the Andes as a factor it creates several geographic and ecological configurations. The Andes are a big natural barrier for the heavy clouds coming from the Amazon rainforest, determining different landscapes clearly defined by their location in the east or west of the Andes. These configurations also form a series of inner valleys with very particular conditions generating small micro habitats allowing for the development of new endemic species. In the eastern side of the Andes where the clouds are trapped by the mountains, cloud forests are formed. It is in these valleys where the mayor biodiversity of orchids and other species can be found, even up to 4000 meters high. Contrary to the common believe the lowland Amazon jungle or Rupa Rupa, watered by the Amazon River is not too rich in orchid species, although several species of orchids are spread out in the entire amazonic watershed. In this sense, it is obvious that orchids don’t respect political frontiers. It is very probable that many orchids that are classified as natives of neighboring countries are found in Peru too. These frontier areas are inhabited and they haven’t been studied in detail as has happened in neighboring countries like Ecuador, Colombia or Brazil.	Masdevallia manoloi C.A. Luer & M. Arias 1998 foto© Eric Hunt www.orchidphotos.org Masdevalia infracta Lindley 1833 foto© Eric Hunt www.orchidphotos.org Lycaste longipetala (Ruiz & Pavón) Garay 1798
Pleurothallis phalangifera (C. Presl) Schltr. 1921	Phragmipedium besseae Dodson & J. Kuhn 1981	Specklinia picta (Lindl.) Pridgeon & M.W. Chase 2001
Masdevallia kuhniorum Luer 1978	Masdevallia notosibirica Maek. & T. Hashim. 1973 foto© Eric Hunt www.orchidphotos.org	Masdevallia stumpflei Braas 1979
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