Ponthieva ventricosa

I have been monitoring a small colony of this species that is near my home for years now. It suffered terribly during the 2015 drought but most plants survived. It the very wet year of 2016 the plants thrived. After Hurricane Maria, all the plants had their leaves burned to a crisp by the harsh power of the full tropical sun because the canopy that sheltered them was obliterated. The canopy has recuperated modestly, and the plants produced new leaves, a fraction of the size of their normal ones, hopefully the plants thought weakened, will survive the coming dry season. These orchids are Caribbean endemics so they probably are adapted to survive these these cycles of growth and destruction.

 

Those sparkles are only visible when photographed with flash or some high intensity light. Other wise it looks pure white.