Species
+

Prosthechea cochleata (L.) W.E.Higgins

Clamshell Orchid, Clamshell orchid, Cockle orchid, Cockleshell Orchid

Climate known 59 photographs Orchid
Add one to my plants Sow seed

Every figure on this page is derived from public data by a stated rule and says its source; nothing here is written by a person or a model, except the Wikipedia passage, which is quoted and marked as such. How it is made.

Summary

Prosthechea cochleata, commonly referred to as the clamshell orchid or cockleshell orchid, is an epiphytic, sympodial New World orchid native to Central America, the West Indies, Colombia, Venezuela, and southern Florida. It is also known as the black orchid in Belize, where it is the national flower.

Text from Wikipedia, “Prosthechea cochleata”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written. Kept separate from everything derived here.

About the genus · Prosthechea

Prosthechea is a genus of flowering plants in the orchid family (Orchidaceae). The name is derived from the Greek word prostheke (appendix), referring to the appendage on the back of the column. Appendage orchid is a common name for this genus. More on Wikipedia ›

The opening of Wikipedia, “Prosthechea”, CC BY-SA 4.0, quoted as written.

Family
Orchidaceae
Described by
(L.) W.E.Higgins
Native to
Florida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast +25
Wild records
1564 in range· 661 open

At a glance

Warmest month
29°C
May, mean day; nights 21 °C (CHELSA)
Rain
1797mm/yr
12 wet months · peak Sep 287 mm (CHELSA)
Light
24–40DLI
mol/m²/day, winter to summer, open sky (CHELSA shortwave)
In short condensed by rule from the cultivation cards · not written by a person
Grouped as a orchid by Orchidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern). Habitat rain 1797 mm a year, wettest September at 287 mm, driest March at 48 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere). Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day. Cold floor 14.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).
Each sentence is one card's own one-line form, written by the same rule as the card (Its year, Rain, Light, Temperature); the note cannot say what a card does not. Months are given for the northern hemisphere (set your site in Settings to change this), and the habitat's own alongside. The cards · the figures.

Also known as Anacheilium cochleatum (L.) Hoffmanns.; Encyclia cochleata (L.) Dressler; Epidendrum cochleatum L.; Phaedrosanthus cochleatus (L.) Kuntze.

Cultivation

Grouped as a orchid by Orchidaceae, which is usually but not always one kind of plant (archetype table). The table supplies one figure for this group, a conventional minimum for the cold floor, and no prose.

Its year Rain rule: a summer growing season, May to October in the northern hemisphere (May to October at the habitat, northern).

This species’ habitat figures, and what two fixed rules read from them.

The rain rule reads a summer growing season: 70% of the year's rain (1396 mm of 1797 mm) falls in May to October, warmer than the year (wet-season mean 24.4 °C against a yearly mean of 23.1 °C). Months are the habitat's, northern hemisphere; shifted six months for a southern-hemisphere collection: November to April.

Read from the median year of CHELSA monthly rainfall and mean temperature across the envelope cells: the rain rule takes the smallest set of months carrying 70% of the rain and calls it winter when its mean is more than half a degree below the year's, summer when more than that above, and neither in between; the temperature rule, used only under 120 mm, names the cooler six months when they are at least a degree cooler than the other six. Months are shifted for the other hemisphere only where the temperature curve gives a season to reverse. A reading of the curves, not an observation of the plant.

Rain Habitat rain 1797 mm a year, wettest September at 287 mm, driest March at 48 mm (habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

1797 mm a year at the habitat, 1396 mm of it May to October. Wettest month September at 287 mm, driest March at 48 mm. Across the envelope cells the year's total runs 1204 mm to 2981 mm (10th to 90th percentile of each cell's own year) (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; habitat calendar, northern hemisphere).

CHELSA monthly precipitation, median year across the envelope cells. The rain that falls where the species is recorded; nothing about how the plant takes water.

Light Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day.

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Open sky over the habitat: 24 to 40 mol/m²/day across the year (daily light integral, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA; the lowest 10th-percentile month across the cells is 22, the highest 90th-percentile month 43).

CHELSA shortwave radiation at each envelope cell, a daily-mean flux taken to a daily total and converted at 2.07 mol of PAR per MJ. The sky over the habitat, measured; what reaches a plant under a rock, a shrub or a shade cloth is not.

Warmth and air Cold floor 14.5 °C (1st-percentile habitat night, NASA POWER).

This species’ habitat figures, with their source.

Temperature

Coldest: the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell is 14.5 °C, the absolute minimum 12.4 °C, no frost in 44 years (NASA POWER daily minima). Warmest: the 99th-percentile day is 33.0 °C. Monthly means: coldest night 16.9 °C in January (across the envelope cells 10.3 °C to 20.6 °C), warmest day 28.7 °C in May (median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). Cold floor: 14.5 °C, which is the 1st-percentile night over 44 years at the typical cell (NASA POWER); the archetype table's minimum for a orchid, 13 °C, is lower and does not raise it.

NASA POWER daily minima and maxima 1981–2024 at the typical cell, lapse-corrected to its elevation; CHELSA monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA. The cold floor is the figure named in its sentence, and the archetype table's group minimum where that is higher. Not a measured survival limit for any plant in a pot.

Humidity

Relative humidity at the habitat: 61 to 69% across the year (monthly means, median year across the envelope cells, CHELSA). A figure about the air, saying nothing about how the plant takes water.

CHELSA relative humidity, median year across the envelope cells.

The figures the cards read from are in Climate below, and where they came from in Natural habitat.

Climate across the habitat

Habitat climate through the yearMean day from 24 °C in Jan to 29 °C in May; mean night from 17 °C in Jan to 21 °C in Jun. The cold quarter, Dec to Feb, is the three months around the coldest night. 1797 mm of rain a year, most in Sep. The bands show the 10th to 90th percentile across 787 habitat cells. Over 44 years at the typical cell the absolute minimum was 12.4 °C and the 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C; neither is dated to a month. Beneath: daily light integral and relative humidity through the year, each on its own scale.10°15°20°25°30°35°33.0° 99th-percentile day (undated)12.4° lowest night in 44 yrs (undated)°C · day and nightcold quarter0100200300400500mm rainDLI 24–40RH 61–69 %JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
day night rain 10th–90th percentile across 787 habitat cells cold quarter: the three months around the coldest night extremes over 44 years at the typical cell, marked at the edge: undated DLI, mol/m²/dayRH %each on its own scale
Figures by month
JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
Day °C24 / 20–2726 / 21–2927 / 23–3129 / 24–3329 / 25–3328 / 23–3128 / 23–3128 / 23–3128 / 23–3026 / 22–2925 / 21–2825 / 20–27
Night °C17 / 10–2117 / 11–2118 / 12–2220 / 14–2321 / 15–2421 / 16–2521 / 15–2421 / 15–2421 / 15–2420 / 14–2319 / 12–2218 / 11–21
Rain mm61 / 16–14452 / 15–10448 / 16–9461 / 33–129141 / 86–253265 / 152–411244 / 135–433246 / 146–437287 / 184–463213 / 126–352109 / 35–24270 / 19–175
DLI26 / 23–3331 / 28–3736 / 34–4240 / 37–4339 / 36–4235 / 31–4136 / 32–4236 / 32–4032 / 29–3629 / 27–3326 / 24–3224 / 22–31
RH %65 / 58–6963 / 57–6861 / 56–6661 / 57–6664 / 59–6867 / 63–7167 / 62–7267 / 63–7269 / 64–7368 / 64–7267 / 61–7166 / 59–70

Each figure is the median across the 787 grid cells holding the 1168 in-range records, with the 10th–90th percentile span across those cells after the slash where it differs. Extremes and elevation were read at the typical cell 1594:1903 (10.275, -84.825). Over 44 years there: absolute minimum 12.4 °C, 1st-percentile night 14.5 °C, 99th-percentile day 33.0 °C. Normals: CHELSA V2.1 1981–2010 climatology, 0.05° cells (each the mean of ~36 1 km pixels). Envelope: median and 10th–90th percentile of each month across the 787 distinct grid cells holding the 1168 in-range records; extremes and elevation at the typical cell 1594:1903 (its coldest month's mean night nearest the median across cells); its position is the cell centre. Extremes: NASA POWER (MERRA-2) daily 1981–2024, cell 10.50_-85.000, lapse-corrected +584 m at 6.5 °C/km. Elevation: ETOPO 2022, 965 m (cell mean).

Natural habitat

Native range as published by WCVP; the marker is where the records are densest and decides nothing: the climate was read across every in-range record's cell, not at the marker.
Openly licensed records inside the range, framed on where they fall.
NativeFlorida, Mexico Central, Mexico Northeast, Mexico Gulf, Mexico Southwest, Mexico Southeast, Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Bahamas, Cayman Is., Cuba, Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica, Leeward Is. AB Ant, Puerto Rico, Venezuelan Antilles, Windward Is., French Guiana, Guyana, Surinam, Venezuela, Colombia
Kew's description“pseudobulbous epiphyte or geophyte” · “wet tropical”· quoted from WCVP, RBG Kew (CC BY 4.0); not derived here
Map marker17.147, -89.075 · in the densest population, 912 records (58% of those in range)
Evidence usedThe map marker and the climate envelope rest on all 1564 georeferenced records inside the native range; the map shows only the 661 openly licensed ones, which alone would put the marker 16 km away. 6 records outside the range (gardens, roadsides, misidentifications) ignored. 396 in-range records are placed to worse than 10 km and stay on the map but off the climate.
The map markerthe map marker: the openly licensed record nearest the middle of the densest 1° population inside the densest 4° block of the 1564 in-range records; it decides nothing.

Photographs

Prosthechea cochleataProsthechea cochleataProsthechea cochleataProsthechea cochleataProsthechea cochleataProsthechea cochleataProsthechea cochleataProsthechea cochleata

Photographs: (c) Roberto Jovel, some rights reserved (CC BY); (c) Ricard Busquets Reverte, some rights reserved (CC BY) (4); (c) Juan Cruzado Cortés, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA); (c) Dairon Cuevas Riveras, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) (2).

Photographs: iNaturalist did not answer when this page was built; what is shown came from the sources that did.

Papers naming this species

Works whose title or abstract names Prosthechea cochleata, most cited first, from OpenAlex (CC0). A mention, not a cultivation source: nothing on this page is drawn from them.

Nutritional requirements for in vitro seed germination of 12 terrestrial, lithophytic and epiphytic orchids.
Jayanthi Nadarajan, S. Wood, T. R. Marks, Philip T. Seaton (2011) · JOURNAL OF TROPICAL FOREST SCIENCE
Epiphytic orchids Stanhopea tigrina and Prosthechea cochleata are differentially affected by drought in a subtropical cloud forest
C.I. GUEVARA-PÉREZ, Pablo Delgado‐Sánchez, Jorge Ariel Torres‐Castillo, J.D. FLORES-RIVAS (2019) · Photosynthetica
Floral fragrance analysis of Prosthechea cochleata (Orchidaceae), an endangered native, epiphytic orchid, in Florida
Haleigh A. Ray, Charles Stuhl, Jennifer L. Gillett‐Kaufman (2018) · Plant Signaling & Behavior
A new natural hybrid between Prosthechea cochleata and P. radiata (Orchidaceae) from Alta Verapaz, Guatemala
Edgar Mó, William Cetzal‐Ix, Germán Carnevali, Eduardo A. Pérez‐García (2014) · TURKISH JOURNAL OF BOTANY
Phytochemical screening, antioxidant activity and toxicity of the orchids Prosthechea cochleata and Prosthechea livida-A preliminary study
Josué Nicanor Díaz Avilés, José Luis Alanís Méndez, Nahim Salgado-Medrano, Alexandre Cardoso-Taketa (2020) · Journal of Medicinal Herbs and Ethnomedicine
Comparison of in-vitro orchid media solutions for Prosthechea cochleata (L.) W.E. Higgins vars. diandra and triandra
Lauren G. Bartel, Jason Downing (2024) · Plant Cell Tissue and Organ Culture (PCTOC)
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility
Occurrence Download
GBIF.org User (2026) · Global Biodiversity Information Facility

Similar habitat climate the 6 species whose habitat climate is nearest this one's: mean day and night, month by month, and rain on a log scale, in calendar order, so a habitat with the same seasons six months out is far, not near. Nothing else counts: not range, not family.

History & registers

Where this page came from built 2026-09-20 · dossier v2 · node
gbif.species answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.synonyms answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
gbif.vernacular answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (offline re-derivation; the backbone was not asked)
wcvp.distribution answered
gbif.occurrences answeredGBIF occurrence download https://doi.org/10.15468/dl.3h4zam
climate answered
wikidata answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
wikipedia answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.taxon not asked
inat.photos.wild answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped
inat.photos.cultivated nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
commons nothing to reportcarried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive); that build: carried from build of 2026-09-19 (rederive)
gbif.media answered
openalex answeredcarried from build of 2026-09-19; this build: skipped

Every upstream is recorded as having answered, reported nothing, or refused. Only “nothing to report” is ever shown as an absence. Records came from 66 datasets via GBIF.org; each carries its own licence.