Hey Bestdank, do me a little favor tomorrow when you go to the property. Measure the length & the width of the Pseudobulbs (in centimeters if possible) and take note of any old flower spikes that may still be there (they spikes may have been nearly totally broken away, but look for any small dried up old flower spikes). Take note of whether they are coming from the base of the orchid of from the top of the pseudobulbs. Also, take a close look at the pseudobulbs, are they slight wrinkled/ shriveled, or are they nice & plump. Also, are the Pseudobulbs tall & oval shapes or short and fat/ round. I have poured thru my book & based on your geographical location & the size (or at least the size as I perceive it to be from the photo) of the leaves & pseudobulbs, I think it could a Polystachya Concreta. It stands out for one BIG reason; it likes to grow LOW on oak trees & has short round pseudobulbs. It is one of the only native epiphytes that has such a short, narrow leaf on adult plants. The Second orchid I have found is Prostechea boothiana. It is also low growing on trees, short, narrow leaves. The thing that is not quite convincing to me is that it has short some what flattened pseudobulbs (like an oncidium) which are slightly wrinkled. There is one other plant that has the right pseudobulbs (short, round, very fat looking). But the plant lacks the short narrow leaves that yours has, in fact its leaves look very much like that of your Encyclia Tampensis. Encyclia rufa has been found in that general area. I'm looking forward to seeing the next set of pictures =0). -Ray-

Thanks for the comments Gary and Dragon_kite. The area we were surveying is sandstone escarpment country, so no worry from crocs up higher, we didn't get down into the lowland areas. There's Freshwater Crocs, they tend to be a bit smaller and are mainly fish eaters (okay, bad luck for the fish). It was rough rocky terrain, but I'm used to it. I do quite a lot of surveys. This one was focussed on snakes, but also other animals opportunistically. I'd suspected there'd be those orchids around but surprisingly hadn't come across any previously. They were mainly in a small sheltered gorge protected from fires and dry winds. I had previously found a lot of Hoya in that area but it grows in open very exposed places and is far more visible.

From "Wild Orchids of Florida", Paul Martin Brown, it looks most like Habenaria quinquesta, Michaux's Orchis. It is also similar to H. distans but the book says that this species is rare and restricted to Collier county. Perhaps you can look them up on the orchidspecies web site and see which looks best to you. Meg

Hi Linda, I live in a remote area in Northern Australia, and so might be able to offer a little advice for "home remedies" when you don't have access to a nursery superstore. I'm still new to tropicals, having only lived here for 12 months, so I'm still learning... I've found the "grey water" from the washing machine is quite effective at controlling mealy bugs on hibiscus, citrus, crotons and everything that the ants farm them on. I use a weekly spray of the grey water, and the soapy residue in the water washes them right off. I only have a small garden, so it's not too much of a chore, but I also do the neighbour's plants where they grow over the fence to slow the rate of reinfestation. I've also found it seems to slow the attack of frangipani rust and sooty mould, but to a lesser degree. It would be nice if this was a panacea, because it's much kinder to the plants than white oil, and its environmentally friendly. Hope this helps, Cheers, Scott Scott