2026-08-02, 02:01 PM - Word count:
Greetings and salutations SSL, I hope you've all had a wonderful week. I return to you now with a new installment of this orchid series! This week, we will be featuring the Tenochtitlan / Krung Thep organization, because Afrhite was nice enough to give me a little team personality profile (and Divogo informed me that the teams like to party). I must say that I am EXCITED for this one because both Mexico and Thailand are absolutely bursting with native orchid species and I am eager to randomly decide which ones I think fit these teams. Options abound, but which ones will be the winning ones? Who can say? Me, that's who, because it's my article series and I write what I want!
We will begin, of course, with the majors squad in Tenochtitlan. Mexico is home to over 1200 orchid species, and before I get too deep into them, here's a fun fact - one of those is the Vanilla planifolia orchid, which is the source of all the (true) vanilla extract we use in cooking and baking. That's right, vanilla comes from an orchid! (it's an extensive process which is why vanilla is so expensive, but that's not relevant to this article so I will save that for another time). ANYWAY. The orchid I have chosen to represent CDT is not the vanilla orchid, but rather one with much more exciting flowers. Her name is Prosthechea radiata (An interesting thing about orchid cultivation is that there are SO MANY species and the science is so eternally ongoing, that orchids are frequently reclassified into other genera based on whatever latest genetic test has been done on them. Prosthechea radiata is one of these; it was previously known as Encyclia radiata, and many people still refer to it by that name.) Anyway, she looks like this:
![[Image: u3CqzQF.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/u3CqzQF.jpeg)
I think this is an excellent fit for CDT both personality-wise and aesthetically - the star-shaped blooms really play off of that Aztec star in the CDT logo, and the colors are a pretty close match too, with the creamy green in the petals and the red and yellow elements on and inside of the lip. This orchid is a real party (as I am told the team is); it's a gorgeous orchid, produces large, extremely fragrant blooms (and mature plants can hold dozens of them at a time). It's also considered super easy to grow! You should go get one right now, in fact. You can get them online for like fifteen bucks.
Moving on, we will head to Thailand to assign an orchid to the minors squad at Krung Thep. As I mentioned before, Thailand is home to many orchids (some of which have already been featured in this series!) But for our mango-eating, holy water drinking friends here, I have selected Aerides houlletiana. These orchids are honestly gorgeous, and I'm so upset I don't have one yet. They make these beautiful sprays of tiny flowers, light and airy, and they seem very angelic to me (to go with our little cherubs and all that). They look like this!
![[Image: ERyi3EF.jpeg]](https://i.imgur.com/ERyi3EF.jpeg)
They are occasionally hybridized with other orchids (including Vandas, which they are closely related to), but they're beautiful all on their own. They allegedly smell like citrus, and make an astonishing number of flowers. They are a little more challenging to grow depending on where you live; they like warm temperatures, and a lot of humidity, which is easy enough if you live somewhere like Florida, but a bit more challenging for someone like me who raises all her orchids on a porch in New York and brings them in for the winter. If you live somewhere warm, though, and have about fifty dollars to spend on a plant, I don't think you should let that "moderately difficult" rating stop you - go get you one!
That brings us to the end of this week's edition of SSL Organizations as Orchids. I hope you continue to enjoy it, and as always, hit me up if you want your org featured next!
We will begin, of course, with the majors squad in Tenochtitlan. Mexico is home to over 1200 orchid species, and before I get too deep into them, here's a fun fact - one of those is the Vanilla planifolia orchid, which is the source of all the (true) vanilla extract we use in cooking and baking. That's right, vanilla comes from an orchid! (it's an extensive process which is why vanilla is so expensive, but that's not relevant to this article so I will save that for another time). ANYWAY. The orchid I have chosen to represent CDT is not the vanilla orchid, but rather one with much more exciting flowers. Her name is Prosthechea radiata (An interesting thing about orchid cultivation is that there are SO MANY species and the science is so eternally ongoing, that orchids are frequently reclassified into other genera based on whatever latest genetic test has been done on them. Prosthechea radiata is one of these; it was previously known as Encyclia radiata, and many people still refer to it by that name.) Anyway, she looks like this:
I think this is an excellent fit for CDT both personality-wise and aesthetically - the star-shaped blooms really play off of that Aztec star in the CDT logo, and the colors are a pretty close match too, with the creamy green in the petals and the red and yellow elements on and inside of the lip. This orchid is a real party (as I am told the team is); it's a gorgeous orchid, produces large, extremely fragrant blooms (and mature plants can hold dozens of them at a time). It's also considered super easy to grow! You should go get one right now, in fact. You can get them online for like fifteen bucks.
Moving on, we will head to Thailand to assign an orchid to the minors squad at Krung Thep. As I mentioned before, Thailand is home to many orchids (some of which have already been featured in this series!) But for our mango-eating, holy water drinking friends here, I have selected Aerides houlletiana. These orchids are honestly gorgeous, and I'm so upset I don't have one yet. They make these beautiful sprays of tiny flowers, light and airy, and they seem very angelic to me (to go with our little cherubs and all that). They look like this!
They are occasionally hybridized with other orchids (including Vandas, which they are closely related to), but they're beautiful all on their own. They allegedly smell like citrus, and make an astonishing number of flowers. They are a little more challenging to grow depending on where you live; they like warm temperatures, and a lot of humidity, which is easy enough if you live somewhere like Florida, but a bit more challenging for someone like me who raises all her orchids on a porch in New York and brings them in for the winter. If you live somewhere warm, though, and have about fifty dollars to spend on a plant, I don't think you should let that "moderately difficult" rating stop you - go get you one!
That brings us to the end of this week's edition of SSL Organizations as Orchids. I hope you continue to enjoy it, and as always, hit me up if you want your org featured next!
![[Image: gUP1UGt.png]](https://i.imgur.com/gUP1UGt.png)
