A lovely hairy trumpet with a tricky name

Trichosalpinx (trick-oh-SAL-pinks), mmm… say that five times fast. Trichosalpinx is a genus of about 100 tropical American species closely related to Pleurothallis. What differentiates the genus is the ringed sheaths on their stems, you can see these on the second and third photos below. The generic name actually means “trumpet with hairs,” and although I am not that fond of generic names they can be rather descriptive. At least dear husband thinks it sexy with all this latin speak… He is also starting to realize why I really want to get a new camera with a proper macro lens. These flowers only measure about 5 mm and it is impossible to catch all the beautiful details with a point-and-shoot.

I got this Trichosalpinx sp. from a friend and I grow it orchid mounted on EpiWeb in the cool vivarium with the rest of my Pleurothallids. Pleurothallis is a genus, what is commonly referred to as Pleurothallids are orchids within the subtribe Pleurothallidinae. For those of you who are fascinated with these orchids I can recommend a really good website and resource called The Pleurothallid Alliance run by Lynn O’Shaughnessy. If you become a member you also get a great little booklet called “Masdevallia and Affiliates” that explains Carl Luer’s the newly accepted divisions of the Masdevallia genus. A very interesting read.