The state of Goiás is located in the heart of Brazilian Central Plateau, between depressions, valleys and plateaus. At east and south we have the higher altitudes, above 1200 meters. Lower altitudes occur in the western regions. (Picture 1, the one that's on the attached images item)
The climate in the State of Goiás is tropical semi-humid. Basically, there are two well-defined seasons: rainy summer (October to April) and a dry winter (May to September). When I say dry, I mean it. Humidity can decrease till 13% (last year)… Great for flowering nobile type Dendrobiuns, hehe (cold and dry)… On the other hand, summer is pretty rainy, people growing orchids without covering (letting rain) often have fungal problems. I can go through 10 days without watering some plants in plastic pots. Mean temperatures vary from 18º to 26º C, with an expressive thermal amplitude with respect to the prevailing regime in the high plateaus, which form a great part of Goiás. The higher temperatures (Max. 39ºC) are registered between September and October, while lower temperatures can reach 4ºC between May and July.
Goiás territory presents typical vegetation called Cerrado (Picture 2, the first thumbnail), wich is in fact the regional name given to the brazilian savannas, including about 20% of the country. Soil is generally very old, poor and deep. The typical landscape is extensive savanna-like formations, intercepted by small forests along river courses and valleys. However, other types of vegetation may occur in this region, like wet fields, buriti palms and others. Generally, orchids can be found in these small forest next to river courses, lakes and water falls, wich are very frequent. On the other hand, some of them are terrestrial, standing almost in full sun (Cyrtopodium) and epiphytic that also can stand lots of light, like Shomburgkia.
Cerrado trees are very peculiar, with twisted trunks, covered by a thick layer of cork. The cork enables them to survive and grow after the seasonal fires, which often occur in the dry season. Maybe that’s why C.walkerianas and C.nobiliors adapt so well to tree slabs, specially corky ones…They also can’t stand too much water in their roots for too long, preferring more air humidity…The trees also have deep root system and may present subterranean organ to stock some water and nutrients. The following picture was taken by a colleague of a national forum, showing C. walkeriana in trees (Picture 3).
But they can also be found in rocks under full sun…(Picture 4)
The underground has lots of water, although soil is acid, with high content of aluminum and poor. Because of these factors, some trees lose part of their leaves so that the root system may search for water deep within the ground. That means that an orchid in these conditions must be able to get lots of light almost full sun…C. nobilior is one of them, especially the ‘amalie’ variety…
The main rivers are: Paranaíba, Aporé, Araguaia, São Marcos, Corumbá, Claro, Paranã e Maranhão.
NATIVE ORCHID SPECIES OF GOIÁS
In Brazil, you can find orchids basically in every state, although not every one of them will be so ornamental like a cattleya. Some species occur in more than one state, presenting significant differentiations from one area to another…I have a walkeriana from Minas Gerais that don’t support as much direct light as the other one from Cerrado. Here are some of the most frequent plants orchid growers like to have in their collections. Some of them I’ll post photos of the flower or habitat, but I’d like to remember that not all of them are my plants or photos, I’m just posting them to illustrate better the topics…
-Among the catts, there are:
Cattleya bicolor (pic 5, from
Index)
Cattleya walkeriana (mine, picture 6)
Cattleya nobilior. (this is a photo of the 2006 EXPO, pic 7)
-There are lots of Cyrtopodiums, the one in the picture 8 is a saint-legerianum, they are terrestrials
- Also there are Microlaelia lundii, Encyclia, Epidendrum, Galeandra, Habenaria, Ionopsis, Maxiallaria, Oncidium, Schomburgkia and Vanilla.
P.S.: Well, please remember this is a very “shy” report, but hope I could bring some interesting information…For more orchid names, take a look at the site
Brazilian Orchids
See ya!
