Orchids are splendidly diverse and within the range of plant and flower forms there are some remarkable species such as this astonishingly beautiful orchid donated to the Orchid Project by a Coata Rican orchid grower in the late 1990s. Macroclinium lineare is a true mini-miniature with a fan shaped plant 3cm high and masses of relatively large elegant flowers in dense groups on short spikes.

Macroclinium lineare is native to warm mossy forests in Costa Rica and Panama at around 700-1400m. This species has shorter flower spikes than Macroclinium chasei  but larger flowers, and when it flowers well it produces a profusion of flowers that all open together giving a great display.

We grow the species mounted in Warm Americas (Min 15C) and spray it daily.  As you can see, plants do especially well when the mount develops a layer of short moss so that plants have a little more damp around them. We grow plants in good light and make sure that the moss does not out compete the short growths. The pollinator is a euglossine bee and the flowers are fragrant as an extra bonus.