In 1964 I saw some orchids growing in a forest on Hawaii, the largest
island of the Hawaiian Islands. I was eleven years old on a family
vacation. I'm hoping to find a possible species name to include in a
true story I'm writing. The trouble is, I don't know anything about
orchids. In fact I don't even know if the beautiful flowers I saw were
indeed orchids. I assume they were.
In my copy of Bailey's 2nd Hortus I read about growing orchids. It takes
special knowledge and patience. People who grow orchids must truly
appreciate them and have the basic abilities needed to follow scientific
procedure, and that is why I'm asking here, first, for help with
identification before I do any extensive book searching. I'll wager
someone in this newsgroup will know what the orchids most likely would
have been from the information I provide.

I like plants and I know that flowering plants are classified by the
anatomy of their reproductive parts. I don't have any information about
the specific anatomy of the flowers I saw. All I have comes from my
boyhood memory: a general description of the appearance of the flowers,
the location and the environment they were growing in.

The flowers I saw were growing on the trunks and larger branches of
trees. They generally looked like epiphytes I have seen. Most flower
specimens were about four or more inches across with thick petals and
were a singular inflorescence. Very large specimens some over eight
inches across were growing near and above naturally occurring geothermal
steam vents associated with local volcanic activity.

When first observed, the most remarkable visual characteristic of the
flower itself was the beautiful color: almost fluorescent, a lavender,
reddish-violet. I found a copyrighted jpg from a link originating from
this ng with a flower (the large Broughtonia on the page) that looks
close to the color I remember:
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/v...ia/aaa.jpghtml
Please protect the rights and wishes of the owner of the image: ©2002
John E. Erickson all rights reserved

In this next image (also copyrighted, please honor ownership rights,
thank you) the color is not quite what I remember but the general shape
and appearance of the flower is close:

Large image: Cookara Tropical Snowflake
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/v...a/aad.jpg.html
©2000 John E Erickson all rights observed

Any ideas about what this "volcanic" orchid might have been?

Thank you,
C. Nick Kruzer
(Paul Massey)