Description

Author story about the species

This orchid was the first I painted in Peru, and I was surprised how the illustration looked naïve and Victorian. However, during the painting its beguiling fragrance led me to dream of the enchanted forest. Years later travelling upriver on the prow of a dug-out, I would catch the smell on the warm breeze from the rainforest and glimpse this dancing fairy calling from high in the canopy. Some of these orchids have evolved to mimic a spider and amazingly are pollinated by large Pepsis spider-hunting wasps, that sting the orchid lip and pollinate by deception. The species grows in the Amazon rainforest eastern Andean slopes around 600 – 1200 m elevation.

• Date: 1994 (painted in Perú)
• Project: Orchids of Perú
• Original: SOLD – ROYAL BOTANIC GARDENS, KEW LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES COLLECTION
• Awards / Reviews: The painting was awarded an RHS gold medal.