Orchids of Colombia: the national flower and the natives behind it

Every count we found agrees on the ranking, even though the numbers differ:

• 4,574 native species. That's Kew's count in the June 2026 release of the World Checklist of Vascular Plants, the data behind Plants of the World Online. It's the highest of any country in the checklist, with Ecuador second at 4,456. Kew records 2,323 of them in Colombia alone, across 223 genera.
• 4,270 species in 274 genera, 1,572 found only in Colombia. Those are the numbers in Colombia's 2015 national orchid plan, written by the Ministry of Environment with the Universidad Nacional de Colombia. The ministry adds that 944 of those endemics are in the Andean region.

Each count uses its own list and its own date. The first place holds either way.

Who picked it. Colombia's Ministry of Environment, in Resolution 0956 of 2010, says the choice came from a 1936 opinion of the Academia Colombiana de Historia. No law or decree ever made it official, the ministry adds, yet the country accepts it socially and culturally. That same resolution named 2010 Colombia's National Year of Orchids.

Why those colors. Longwood Gardens points out that the lip shows colors resembling the Colombian flag's yellow, blue and red. The flower is famously variable, though. The American Orchid Society (AOS) describes petals from pure white to lilac and amethyst purple, with a crimson lip and an orange throat, and says the botanist Lindley once named it quadricolor for the four colors he saw. NC State lists pink, blue to lavender and white forms.

Where the name comes from. It was described in 1860 from a Colombian plant and named for José Jerónimo Triana, a botanist from Bogotá (AOS, Longwood).

Where it grows. Only in Colombia, on trees in the Andes between 900 and 1,800 m (about 3,000 to 5,900 ft), according to ColPlanta, the Universidad Nacional's plant catalog published with Kew. Kew's checklist also records it in Colombia only.

How it's doing. It's endangered. The ministry says its habitat has vanished from much of the country, that some regions lost about 80% of it in the last hundred years, and that collecting has been heavy. ColPlanta lists it as Endangered on Colombia's 2021 national Red List.

In Colombia it's called flor de mayo (May flower), along with lirio de mayo, flor de San Juan and catleya, among other names the Universidad Nacional records (ColPlanta). Travel to Brazil and flor de maio means a different plant: the Christmas cactus. To grow one at home, start with the Cattleya care card.

These five genera all have species grown far from the forest. Counts are from Kew's June 2026 checklist, leaving out natural hybrids.

• Masdevallia: 165 species in Colombia, 101 of them found nowhere else; only Ecuador and Peru have more. A Universidad Nacional study in Acta Biológica Colombiana records the Colombian name banderitas ("little flags") for two species. They come from cool, cloudy mountain forests and want 60 to 90% humidity, per the AOS and NC State. The Masdevallia coccinea below grows wild only in Colombia. Care details live on the Masdevallia card.

• Dracula: Colombia has 79 species, more than any other country (Ecuador has 61), and 64 grow wild only there. These used to be filed under Masdevallia. Their sepals end in long, thin tails, and the bumpy petal tips can look like two eyes beside a nose, explains a 2023 AOS article. The AOS counts about 134 species in all; Kew counts 147. They grow in cool mountain cloud forest at roughly 1,400 to 2,000 m (4,500 to 6,500 ft). Most hang their flowers downward, so growers use mesh pots or baskets. The AOS says humidity should only dip below 60% briefly (70 to 85% is ideal) and the roots should stay moist, since long dry spells kill them.

• Miltoniopsis: four of its five species grow in Colombia (Kew, ColPlanta), and Miltoniopsis phalaenopsis grows only there. These are the pansy orchids, from high, cool cloud forests, per NC State and the New York Botanical Garden. See the Miltoniopsis card.
• Odontoglossum, now Oncidium: Kew has folded Odontoglossum into Oncidium. The RHS says cool-growing oncidiums used to be called Odontoglossum, and shops still use the name. Colombia has 154 Oncidium species, more than any other country. The famous Odontoglossum crispum, today Oncidium alexandrae, grows wild only in Colombia, according to Kew. Its care is on the Oncidium card.
• Cattleya: besides the national flower, Kew records nine Cattleya species in Colombia, five of them found only there: C. trianae, C. schroederae, C. warscewiczii, C. quadricolor and C. mendelii. The AOS notes that C. schroederae was first described as a variety of C. trianae.

Why do so many of them want cool, damp air? They're mountain plants. Our guide to where orchids come from shows how a cloud forest home shapes their care.

• Medellín, during the Feria de las Flores. The Sociedad Colombiana de Orquideología, the Jardín Botánico de Medellín and the artist Julián Posada stage an orchid show in the garden's Orquideorama, a tradition since 1995, according to the Medellín city government. The 2023 show brought together about 2,000 orchids from 23 growers.
• Bogotá, the Exposición Nacional de Orquídeas. The Jardín Botánico de Bogotá José Celestino Mutis runs it with the Asociación Bogotana de Orquideología. Its editions are numbered: the 18th was in September 2019, with about 3,000 plants from exhibitors in nine regions, and the 19th in September 2022, per the Bogotá city government (2019, 2022).

A show is the easiest way to see Colombia's natives up close, and to buy from a grower who can tell you how the plant was raised.