Claire Garrett: Rio Negro Orchid Adventure with the Orchid Conservation Alliance

Claire Garrett has been a member of the Fort Lauderdale Orchid Society since 2011 and has received one FCC (91 points), one HCC, one CCE (92 points) and five CCM awards from the AOS for the orchids that she grows in her backyard in Hollywood. She has an eclectic collection of species and hybrids ranging from the tiny Dendrobium peguanum to the oversized Myrmecophila christinae. She especially loves fragrant orchids. Claire attended the 2024 World Orchid Conference in Taiwan, and traveled to Papua New Guinea in August 2025 to discover orchids in the wild with the Orchid Conservation Alliance under the leadership of intrepid guide and OCA President Mary Gerritsen. She hopes to return to the Amazon in 2026 for another repeat the Orchid Conservation Alliance’s trip on the Rio Negro River in Brazil.

In May 2023 Claire went for the first time on one of the Orchid Conservation Alliance’s many “Orchids in the Wild” Ecotours. This trip took a small group of orchid lovers to the Rio Negro River in the Brazilian Amazon onboard the Otter, a three story riverboat. Several times every day, and also often at night, people climbed into motorized canoes to explore the treetop canopy in search of orchids. This presentation gives an overview of some of the many orchid species, such as Cattleya violacea and Epidendrum nocturnum that were observed blooming there at that time of the year. Welcome aboard to vicariously experience this trip of a lifetime! In June 2024 Claire returned there once again and saw some additional orchid varieties in bloom at that time.