Cattleya percivaliana Rchb.f.
Some notes from Cl. Horich about Cattleya percivaliana Rchb.f.Translated from the magazine ‘Die Orchidee’, September 1983
Mr. Albert Withers, earlier owner of one of western Canada’s largest orchid nurseries, namely “Burnaby Orchids” in B.C. was dealing in cut flower sales. In 1952 this nursery, in association with some Californians, was growing the remarkably large number of 35,000 orchid plants in about 12 enormous greenhouses. Of these orchids, surely 30,000 were Cattleyas, of which about 20,000 had been imported by Mr. Withers from the jungles of South America.
It was there, under Vancouver’s leaden skies, surrounded by the heavy snow barriers of January 1952, where I was to look after thousands of gigantic wooden baskets filled with Cattleya percivaliana. Above these plants, there were garlands of incandescent lights and it was one of my daily duties to sweep the snow from the roofs of the greenhouses, so that every night, these roofs could be covered with heavy mats of straw. The temperatures in all those greenhouses were kept at the warmth which was the natural requirement of those orchids – according to Mr. Withers. So, the oil furnaces were going day and night (during those years, oil really was cheap!).
 Cattleya percivaliana © Jay Norris, Ravenvision Photographic |
The relatively small flowers, with a not 'too pleasant scent', were shipped out by plane in small glass vials at $1.25 a piece to Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa and Halifax.
I learned a lot from my boss, a Briton by birth - he only avoided direct answers when I asked him - WHERE in South America he had found all those plants. His regular answer was: “Perhaps one day I go back there and I’ll take you along, so that you can see for yourself where and how the Cattleyas grow wild”. Well, Mr. Withers never did return to South America and it would be another twelve years before I travelled to Venezuela for the first time.
This gigantic land displayed its extreme contrasts to the traveller, even while we were still in the air: vast prairies and similarly vast jungles and mountains, mostly without human habitation. Then the taxis – huge North American monster cars with rather brave drivers who took us from Maracaibo to Caracas in a death defying race. This capital’s centre part is super modern while in the poorer outlying areas, only the Buicks, Chryslers and Packards (most with traffic-caused abrasions) that were parked in front of absolute hovels, bear witness to their owner’s status. A good apartment may have been too expensive to rent or own, but cars and gasoline are cheap and after all, Venezuela is an oil-rich country.
Mr. Withers might have had a hard time finding his way in the Venezuela of 1964; during his collecting trips thirty years earlier he had found countless masses of C. mossiae (our Easter orchid in Burnaby) right in the outskirts of Caracas. Now, Venezuelan orchidists have to admit that “Of course, this used to be true. Look at that hillside over there; you can still find a few C. mossiae there but now you cannot go in - it is government owned land. The plants that used to grow here have all disappeared under the onslaught of urban growth. Today one must travel far inland”.
It surprised me to hear that there are people in this city who grow in their gardens thousands of the native orchid species like C. mossiae, C. gaskelliana, C. lueddemanniana from the coast and C. percivaliana from the hillsides, for the very large Venezuelan cut flower market. I was privileged to be invited to visit the wonderful collections of Mr. Helmuth Graf, Joseph Ruecker and H. Wendlicher. From these people I also found out where I could still find Cattleyas and other orchids in the wild. I am in debt to Mr. Ruecker, who not only assisted my safe passage through the check-point of a militia post controlling guerrilla activity, but he also pointed me to several areas where could be found my old friend from Canada, C. percivaliana as well as Epi. oerstedtii in a windblown situation among lichen, under cloud-covered skies, forming regular hummocks between rocks.
Throughout all the available orchid literature I had searched unsuccessfully for information about this small species of the C. labiata complex. Only in Julien Costantin’s “Atlas des Orchidees Cultivees” (from 1906) I found a short note about this plant, briefly translated: “…the variety percivaliana grows farther inland, towards the southern Venezuelan cordilleras, at about 1200m elevation among rocks that are exposed to the burning sun.” This confirmed Mr. Ruecker’s instructions. Of course, Dunsterville & Garay’s book ‘Venezuela’s Orchids Illustrated’ was not in my hands at that time. Another fact, until then unknown to me was that there were white flowered varieties in existence – pure alba forms! There was said to be even a semi-alba form, just like the famous C. warscewiczii semi-alba ‘Frau Melanie Beyrodt’.
None of these albinistic forms had ever been mentioned to be among the thousands of orchids growing in North America. Perhaps these plants had never been shipped abroad. Perhaps they had arrived in the Northern countries and quietly disappeared in a private collection – never to be propagated.
Knowing about the existence of such rarities convinced me to move the proverbial “Heaven and Hell” to find them - even to offer some of my other orchid treasures in exchange. It turned out that again Mr. Ruecker was able to arrange it so that one day, I held in my hand three small pseudobulbs of each of these two varieties.
Now what was I to do with them? Should I grow them on and eventually divide them? I did not have a laboratory for sowing orchids. But meristemming had been developed recently and so both little plants went, with a quiet blessing from my heart, to Mr. Leo Holguin, manager of Armacost & Royston in California. That was in 1965. At the end of March 1979, there arrived in the mail not only a number of small plantlets of those meristem cultures taken from the six original pseudobulbs, but also several slides of the little white Venezuelan princesses.
Today I must express my gratitude to Mr. Albert Withers in Canada, who first introduced me to C. percivaliana, to Mr. Joseph Ruecker in Caracas who first told me about the existence of the “White Ones” and through whose assistance I was able to obtain two small plants, and to Mr. Leo Holguin from California whose perseverance over many years has resulted in the availability of these rarities to many enthusiasts. One thing is certain: many orchids, their first acquisition and eventual proliferation demands many things, most of all unfaltering patience.
To grow C. percivaliana successfully, provide bright light, intermediate-warm temperatures and regular care. At Burnaby Orchids, we had 80cm wide plants in huge wooden baskets; they bloomed profusely for the Christmas season – owing to benign manipulations of temperatures, watering and feeding. Note by translator: along with the regular colour forms, there are a number of alba and albinistic forms of C. percivaliana awarded by the AOS.
Another translated article from “Die Orchidee”, written by D. Kleinbach, Venezuela
Today there are large areas in Venezuela, where the native Cattleya percivaliana does not grow any more. Only very old people can remember that these plants once existed there. The natives collected these orchids in great numbers and sold them. However, most of the plants died because the buyers did not know how to look after them.
C. percivaliana really ought to be raised artificially for the commercial trade. It has been so drastically reduced in its natural habitat that there seems to be little chance for its survival. It is found growing within deep gulleys, closed in by mountains over 3,000 (10,000 feet) high. Thus the plants cannot spread out. And even though they are in this way relatively protected from natural enemies, they have no protection from overzealous collectors. Yet often the native plant hunters themselves appear surprised when a former rich collecting area is found barren of orchids. The best way to protect these Cattleyas, in my opinion, would be to prohibit the sales of collected plants and only sell those that were either sown or meristemmed in laboratories.
 Cattleya percivaliana |
C. percivaliana, in contrast to some other Cattleyas, comes from only a very small area. The plants grow in deep valleys through which there always is a river flowing. The moist updraft provides the orchids with the necessary humidity. Since the region is quite arid, the Cattleyas can only be found in these specific micro climates.
For most of the time, C. percivaliana flowers smell like stink bugs! However, around noon, this fetid odour changes into a sweet and lovely orchid fragrance. Through many years of observing, my sister Edith has developed the theory that this unpleasant smell repels noxious insects and only when the right insects are about (around noon) the orchid will try to attract these to insure pollination.
In its native habitat, C. percivaliana grows at an altitude of 1,400-2,000m. In higher situations, it thrives on layers of moss; sometimes it can be found growing on trees. The Venezuelan Andes around Trujillo and Lara are the home of this orchid. Nowadays it has also been found in Colombia, but there have been questions raised whether these plants might have been introduced from Venezuela during collecting trips in earlier time.
C. percivaliana is said to be photosensitive – meaning the amount of light at certain times of the year dictates when the plants will bloom. Here in Venezuela, they normally have flowers in the fall, during October and November; climatic changes can cause fluctuations of +/- four weeks. (Translator’s note: in more Northern areas, this is a Christmas flower). Unfortunately, this Cattleya blooms only once each year in contrast to C.lueddemanniana, which, under optimum conditions can flower 3x a year.
I have found that C. percivaliana does not at all like to be wet; this will cause the new roots to rot. They should be watered early in the day to allow them to be dry by nightfall. It seems that ours like a weak iodine solution, as well as some calcium in the water, about twice a year. Here in Caracas, the water is quite acidic; therefore we must supplement some calcium to the plants in pots. I am fortunate to live here (in Caracas) at an altitude of about 1200 meters. Thus there is constant summer weather and the bright light, combined with hot days (28°C) and cool nights proves to be very beneficial to orchid growing. We like to re-pot during December and January, a slightly cooler season here. We also fertilize every three weeks with weak foliar feedings during the summer. We do not have a regular spray program (against pests and diseases), but rather observe the plants and try to provide for them what seems necessary – when it is necessary. If a plant of C. percivaliana does get rot on its roots or leaves or new growth, even if you stop the rot, it takes at least three years for the plant to recover.
If this plant does not receive sufficient light, it will not bloom. It must have very bright light, but do not let it burn under direct, hot sun; I use 60% shade cloth. Another important thing to remember is to give your plants plenty of fresh air circulation.
Most clones of C. percivaliana are bright rosy pink with a deep carmine lip. However, there are pure white forms, semi-albas, concolors as well as many named colour forms such as semi-alba ‘Carache’ (called ‘Farah Diba’ in the U.S.); the aurea has a dark golden semi-circle on the dark red lip; the semi-alba form ‘Guyaba’ (Guava) has a lovely pale orange-pink lip; alba ‘Caramelo’ has a yellow/ochre coloured lip; alba ‘Mandarina’ shows a beautiful orange-gold lip; coerulea is the blue form and rarely seen, even more difficult to obtain! In general, all the different clones of this species are desirable because they all exhibit excellent form. Anyone who can provide the right amount of light to bloom the bifoliate Cattleyas and/or Laelia purpurata will be able to successfully raise and flower this showy Venezuelan species.
Ingrid Schmidt-Ostrander - Canadian Orchid Congress