Guarianthe aurantiaca
A small-flowered, orange Guarianthe (formerly Cattleya) that grows as an epiphyte from Mexico to Costa Rica, in forests on the Pacific side of the isthmus with a sharp winter dry season. It flowers in the dry season, mainly January to March, on plants that have finished growing in the summer rains. Grow it bright and warm, water heavily in summer and let it go nearly dry in winter.
Where it grows wild
Mostly epiphytic, and less often on rocks, in a wide range of forests: lowland and montane rainforest, deciduous and semi-deciduous tropical forest, pine forest and, in northern Mexico, riverine forest with cypress, willow and ash. It grows from exposed sites with hot days and a marked dry season to shaded, humid forest. Its range follows the Pacific climate: it is absent from Belize, Yucatán and the eastern Sierra Madre.
The literature gives about 300–1600 m. The wild records span 96–2237 m with a median of about 905 m.
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Profiles are drafts built from measured range and climate and from published sources; each section carries its own confidence in the app. Photo from Wikimedia Commons, used under its CC BY-SA 3.0 licence, unmodified.