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Species library › Maxillaria › Maxillaria tenuifolia
Orchids Well documented

Maxillaria tenuifolia

The widely grown coconut-scented Maxillaria, from lowland and foothill forests of Mexico and Central America. It wants bright light, warm days, and a drier, slightly cooler late winter, and it does best mounted or in a very open mix as its rhizome climbs.

Maxillaria tenuifolia
Photo: sunoochi from Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At home, aim for
Day IntermediateTargets in Plantistry
Night Close to the dayTargets in Plantistry
Humidity Ordinary room humidityBand in Plantistry
Light Bright, filtered lightDLI and PPFD in Plantistry
Expects a seasonal restGrows on trees (epiphyte)

Where it grows wild

An epiphyte of seasonally dry to humid lowland and lower montane forest, often in fairly exposed spots on trunks and branches. It forms climbing chains of small pseudobulbs with grassy leaves.

Recorded at 5-1,749 m, median 172 m. Most records are from the warm lowlands of the Yucatán, Veracruz and Petén.

BelizeCosta RicaEl SalvadorGuatemalaHondurasMexico CentralMexico GulfMexico SoutheastMexico SouthwestNicaragua

🔒 Growing it like that

The wild conditions above, turned into targets for a shelf, a tent or a greenhouse. The full profile has:

✓ Day and night temperature targets, and the limits it tolerates
✓ Humidity band, and how to hold it
✓ Light as DLI and PPFD for a grow light
✓ Wet and dry seasons, and whether to rest it
✓ Substrate and airflow
✓ A step-by-step setup to grow it like the wild

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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 2.0 licence, unmodified.