Wild orchids surprisingly grow in Southern Arizona's higher ranges

Wild orchids grow — to the surprise of many people — in the Catalina Mountains and other high ranges of Southeastern Arizona, and a Native Orchid Conference this week in Benson attracted wild orchid lovers from around the United States, Canada and Europe.

The conference, which concludes Thursday, Aug. 4, included field trips into the Catalina and Chiricahua mountains to observe orchids in the wild, said Ronald Coleman, a conference speaker and author of “The Wild Orchids of Arizona and New Mexico.”

“All of our sky island mountains have wild orchids,” said Coleman, referring to ranges that rise like islands above surrounding deserts. “Once you get above 7,000 feet in our mountains, you will often find them.”

He said Arizona has 26 species of wild orchids and that they differ from the variety of orchids that most people know.

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“The ones that people typically think of are tropical orchids,” he said. “They can be easily grown in homes and greenhouses. But the ones in Arizona are called temperate zone terrestrial orchids. By and large we cannot grow them in our homes and gardens.

“They won’t survive if they are removed or transplanted. They require an association with a fungus. So they are not to be dug up or removed.”

Coleman added that “an interesting thing is that many of the wild orchids actually need the cold weather that happens in the mountains.”

Orchids growing in the mountains of Arizona and New Mexico come in assorted hues — white, green, tan, purplish, reddish and yellowish, Coleman said. “They start blooming in April and finish up in early October,” with some blooming early in the season and others later.