Research at Finca Dracula
With over 2000 orchid species and a location near the Parque Internacional La Amistad, Finca Dracula is a great place to do research on orchids and cloud forest species.
Our research is interested in:
Improve Horticultural Knowledge
to help orchid lovers, growers and circun-situ orchid conservation effortsDetermining the orchid diversity in Panama
to help the conservation efforts of its ecosystemsIluminating Orchid Evolution
to understand why orchids look the way they do and why they are such a diverse family of plants.Latest News
Our Researchers
Dr. Alfonso Doucette
Dr. Alfonso Doucette has had a lifelong interest in plants that began early in childhood and blossomed into a serious research interest during highschool after spending time at Andy’s Orchids in California identifying and illustrating Pleurothallidinae. Alfonso received a bachelor’s in Plant Sciences at Cornell University, advised by Dr. Jerrold I. Davis, and mentored in botanical nomenclature by Dr. James L. Reveal. He completed his Ph.D. in Botany with an entomology minor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison under Dr. Kenneth M. Cameron where he was supported by the prestigious Graduate Research Fellowship Program of the National Science Foundation. His research interests are focused on the systematics and cultivation of orchids in the subtribe Pleurothallidinae.
Selected Publications:
1. Doucette, A., Timyan, J., Henrys, I., & Cameron, K.M. (2016) A tiny new species of Specklinia from Haiti's Parc National Naturel Macaya and new combinations in Acianthera (Pleurothallidinae, Epidendreae, Epidendroideae, Orchidaceae). Phytotaxa 275: 263-276.
2. Doucette, A., Portilla, J., & Cameron, K.M. (2016) Ten new taxa in the orchid subtribe Pleurothallidinae (Epidendroideae, Epidendreae) from Ecuador. Phytotaxa 257: 230-248.
3. Givnish, T.J., Spalink, D., Ames, M., Lyon, S.P., Hunter, S.J., Zuluaga, A., Doucette, A., Giraldo Caro, G., McDaniel, J., Clements, M.A., Arroyo, M.T.K., Endara, L., Kriebel, R., Williams, N.H., and Cameron, K.M. (2016) Orchid historical biogeography, diversification, Antarctica and the paradox of orchid dispersal. Journal of Biogeography 43: 1905-1916.
4. Zelenko, H. (A. Doucette, as contributing editor). Orchids: Masdevallia with segregates including Dracula. Quito: ZAI Publications, 2014.
Dracula immunda A.Doucette: a new species of Dracula discovered in Veraguas, Panama, described in 2011 based on material cultivated at Finca Dracula.
Pleurothallis anthurioides A.Doucette: a new species that was described in 2016 from material gathered on a research expedition led by Finca Dracula to Bocas del Torro.
