Schomburgkia Lindl.
Sir Richard Schomburgk (1811 - 1891) together with his brother Robert explored and collected plants in British Guyana. In 1865 he became director of the Adelaide Botanical Garden in Australia. Lindley assigned his name (1838) to a group of orchids, which were at that time included with the Laelias. Some were called “pseudo-laelias”.
Later, in 1917, Rolfe separated these plants from Laelia, mostly because of physical differences: the Schomburgkias all have wavy sepals and petals and their lip does not enclose the column. He even went a step farther, splitting this one genus into two sections. This separation was again confirmed in 1979 by Mr. G. Kennedy. There are other botanists who do not accept this arrangement. DNA testing will soon tell us the ‘truth’?
The two present groups are:
- Schomburgkia proper, coming from South America, having rather long leaves and fat, solid pseudobulbs; there are about 13 of these.
- Myrmecophila (“Friends of Ants”) about 11 species, coming from Central America and the Caribbean. These have shorter leaves and look very much like large Cattleyas with branched flower stems; these plants have hollow pseudobulbs.
 Schomburgkia undulata |
It seems that even before these pseudobulbs are fully ripe, they develop small slits at their base, which are used by ants as portals to gain entry into a living, dry and shady shelter. In return, the ants come rushing out at any sign of danger to defend their hosts (and home). Many a plant collector has had to beat a hasty retreat from trying to dislodge one of these plants, when thousands of fierce little defenders came swarming over him. It is possible that these orchids give off some kind of scent to entice the insects because Mr. C. Horich, an orchidist and plant collector, found that even after he had managed to remove all the ants from a plant he had brought home and re-established in his garden in San José,Costa Rica, it was not long before another ant colony had taken up residence in this plant.
There are instances of other plants, even other orchids, which live in a similar symbiosis. I wish that I could find some creature that would ‘defend’ my orchids against their enemies; maybe not stinging ants but SOMETHING!
Most Schomburgkias (both groups) are extremely large plants, living high up in tall, 40 meter trees, growing into specimens that can reach over a meter across. The inflorescences can be over 2 meters tall and can have clusters of 30 blooms per stem, sometimes fragrant, in colours from yellow through pink, red and purple-black. If these huge dimension sound intimidating, so does the natural environment these giants are used to: It is always hot, up to 40C; in some places there is no rain for 3 months with nightly dew providing the only humidity to keep the plants alive during this ‘rest’. Other may grow on top of rocks and are always exposed to the burning tropical sun. Their flowering time varies, according to the place where they were collected; their rest period falls into our winter months.
Treat Schomburgkias like their cousins, the Laelias but give them all the heat and sun you can provide, even during their dry rest.
PS – You don’t have to find an ant colony to keep them happy, but I have noticed that in my greenhouse, the little sugar ants were much attracted to these species – do they smell nice? Is their sap sweet? The ants know what they like, anywhere in the world, it seems.
Ingrid Schmidt-Ostrander - Canadian Orchid Congress