June 2015 – Francisco Miranda

Francisco Miranda

We welcome Francisco Miranda as our guest speaker this month. Francisco’s presentation will focus on cattleya species and their habitats and his talk is titled "The genus Cattleya in Brazil".  Cattleya species can be found throughout Brazil and Francisco will show examples from most of the major regions where they occur.  

Francisco was born in Rio de Janeiro and he has been growing orchids since 1979, the same year he received his degree in Biology.  He began his taxonomic studies of the orchid family in 1981. In 1985, he completed a Master’s Degree and his thesis “Section Cattleyodes of the genus Laelia”.  

Francisco has made frequent field trips to study the habitats of Brazilian orchids, resulting in many new described species.  He has authored two books and several scientific papers.  In 1996, he served as the Program Chairman for the 15th World Orchid Conference in Rio de Janiero.

Between 1980 and 2000, Francisco owned an orchid nursery in Rio de Janiero, Orquidario Boa Vista, where he specialized in producing superior cultivars of Brazilian orchid species.  Francisco now lives in Haines City, Florida where he operates Miranda Orchids, producing high-quality species in the Cattleya alliance in continuation of the Orquidario Boa Vista tradition. 

Francisco holds the title of qualified Taxonomic Authority for the American Orchid Society, specializing in the determination of Brazilian orchids, mainly of the Cattleya alliance.

Francisco travels to orchid societies throughout the U.S., Canada and Brazil to give lectures on different topics related to Brazilian orchids. More recently he resumed his taxonomic work and is guiding tours to Brazil with the main objectives of orchid conservation, photography and conservation awareness. He is also scheduled to speak on “Rupiculous Orchids from Brazil” at the SDCOS meeting on Tuesday, June 2.