The white nun” became known in the world over 100 years ago when in 1889 a botanical exchange was established between scientists from America and Europe. Guatemalan orchids were exhibited in Vienna at the initiative of professor Wladyslaw Lamb. At that time the orchidologist Lindley established the genus Cattleya and Lycaste. Among the orchids of the latter genus was also Lycaste Skinneri alba. It is the rarest species among the nearly eight hundred orchids that exist in Guatemala.
The white nun is an orchid, and as such has become a lip or petal that serves as a “runway” to the insects that pollinate it. It is also an epiphyte (live on other plants) and has a thickening of the stem (pseudobulbs) that serves to store water. It grows in the forests of Verapaz, in the Sierra de las Minas and the slopes of the volcanoes in western Guatemala. It opens its petals between November and February. Its fruit is a capsule that requires a particular fungus to germinate so it is extremely rare and sensitive to the deterioration of their habitat. Among the many factors that are destroying their habitat, the excessive logging, forest fires, mostly primitive agricultural practices, and the advancement of the population on land not suitable for use as fertile ground (eg Petén).
