Orchids of Zamora-Chinchipe
Marco Jiménez, in a beautiful scenery during his latest trip to the Alto Nangaritza forests.
Marco shows a beautiful flowered Embreea rodigasiana specimen from the Alto Nangaritza area.
Since 1982 Marco Jimenez started a long journey across the Zamora-Chinchipe Province, in Ecuador. More than 500 trips, with specimens collected and grown, data from books, remembers, field and observation researching, support the count to declare the province has over 1100 orchid species. The need of an intensive research is desperately looked for.
One of our projects is to publish a book with all these records we have made notes.
According to these hard facts, we can state that the following species need a special effort to protect them owing to overcollection and destruction in their natural habitats:
The following species are endemic to the Zamora-Chinchipe Province:
Acineta dalessandroi Catasetum stevensonii Cyclopogon sprucei Masdevallia dalessandroi Masdevallia figueroae Masdevallia manchinazae Masdevallia panguiensis Masdevallia sp. Masdevallia zumbae Paphinia sp. (Numbala Alto forests) Phragmipedium besseae var. dalessandroi Psygmorchis zamorensis Warmingia zamorana
The following species have very small populations confined to rather small areas of geographical distribution in the province:
Catasetum incurvum Catasetum tenebrosum Chaubardiella calceolaris Chaubardiella dalessandroi Chondrorhyncha merana Helcia brevis Huntleya lucida Huntleya meleagris Lepanthes dalessandroi Masdevallia empusa Masdevallia newmanniana Maxillaria sanderiana Odontoglossum wyattianum Paphinia herrerae Paphinia neudeckeri Schlimmia condorana