Americo Docha Neto was born in the City of São Paulo, in 1946. He worked as a biologist at Laboratório Central do HCFM USP.

According to his own words:

"My first interest about the orchids appeared when I was a boy in 1955, during the school vacations, in the end of that year at the Beach of Guaiúba, situated in the Island of Saint Amaro, next to Guarujá. At the time I liked to make incursions through the tracks of Mata Atlantica at the Mount of the Fort of the Andradas to appreciate its beauty from above the littoral landscape. During one of these strolls, I came across a gorgeous flowery plant on a tree. I did not have doubts in collecting it so my family could share the beauty of its flowers, and I remember that as soon as I returned, my mother imediately said that one was an orchid, name absolutely unknown to me then. This plant is my first orchid, and remains with me until today. It was just years later I that I figured out that it is a Laelia purpurata Lindley.

"We lived in Jardim América, in the capital of São Paulo, when completing 15 years we move to Brooklin, another neigorhood of this city. It was here that I first met and became a great friend of the brothers João Alexander and Peter Meyer Pflug, deceased some years ago who later was going to establish the Orquidário Morumby. Peter was circa three years older than me, and João Alexander, two. I remember that their father was an orquidophile who liked orchids even while in his motherland in Germany. To guarantee an extra income, he was responsible for the maintenance of the vases and nurseries of wealthy families which lived in Chácara Flora. To keep the children busy, after finishing their homework, each one of them had the duty to help him repotting the plants, making the hanging wires, identification, fertilization and labelling. As I was with them always, also helping them with this task, and there were always at least 20 or 30 vases, I finished for learning the techniques that I continue using until today.

"Later, due to work and studies contingencies and commitments, each one of us followed a different path. therefore, the orchids were left to second plans. My professional life started very early and as I always were fond of Biological Sciences, soon I was working in laboratories where I started washing bottles. After that I made a course of Technician of Laboratory in Clinical Analyses offered by the Central Laboratory of the Hospital of the Clinics of the FMUSP in São Paulo, and after its ending I started to work there. Thus, after that I started my evening course of graduation, since I needed to keep my job to pay for my studies. Already graduated, I started working in the Hospital of the Clinics as a Biologist, where I stayed during many years, always working surrounded by the lab counters. Concomitantly, with other colleagues, we started a small laboratory which we kept for 12 years. In 1987, looking for new chances and better quality of life, already married and with two small children, we moved to Poços de Caldas where we lived ever since.

"I continued to work in laboratories for many years, however, my passion for orchids remained latent and always I had some tens of vases. When 51 years of age I retired, but I went on working during seven years more, until February of 2004. After 48 years, I decided to diminish the work rhythm to dedicate myself to learning about the cycle of life of the Orchidaceae. My first experiences of scientific level had started with assimbiotic reproduction "in vitro" of seeds of orchids, since my previous knowledge about laboratorial instruments and equipment facilitated the understanding and accomplishment of some stages of the process. While I carried the laboratorial works of botany out, I made polinization and I kept getting more capsules, in way that I started to have a good practical experience in this sector. I continued evolving, and I became interested about botanical taxonomy, when I started to collect and to cultivate a bigger number of specimens, emphasizing the Brazilian species that I continue to study until today. In 1999, when 53 years old, having a futuristic vision, I started to maintain contact with the Círculo de Orquidófilos de Poços de Caldas, where soon I was admitted, and in the following year started to occupy the position of Technical Director, of which I as licenced due to having time to dedicate to myself."

In recent years he has been actively dedicated to the study and photograph of orchids. He has received four awards in orchid photography competitions and currently he participates as a jugde of them. More than a hundred of his photos can be found in diverse specialized sites on the InterNet, many of them in the InterNet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia website, of Jay Pfahl.

Docha Neto has published articles in the Coordenadoria das Associações Orquidófilas do Brasil, Brasil Orquídeas and Orchid Digest, and is one of the authors of the third volume of Coletânea de Orquídeas Brasileiras. He published also, in compact disc, through the Project Orchidstudium, the Coletânea dos Trabalhos Individuais Vol. I, which includes innumerable articles of his.

Currently, beyond his work on the Orchidstudium Project, he also participates on the survey and documentation of the orchids of the Plateaus of Poços de Caldas.

Photos on Internet

1. On IOSPE - Jay Pfhal (USA)

Capanemia thereziae (plant view)

Comparettia coccinea

Comparettia coccinea

Habenaria josephensis

Habenaria josephensis (other view)

Habenaria josephensis (plant view)

Lanium avicula

Lanium avicula

Lankesterella ceracifolia

Lankesterella ceracifolia

Macradenia regnellii

Macradenia regnellii (close-up)

Macradenia regnellii (other view)

Malaxis excavata

Malaxis excavata (inflorescence)

Malaxis excavata (plant view)

Malaxis excavata (close-up)

Maxillaria violaceopunctata

Maxillaria violaceopunctata (close-up)

Maxillaria violaceopunctata (plant view)

Maxillaria vitelliniflora

Maxillaria vitelliniflora (close-up)

Myoxanthus lonchophyllus

Myoxanthus lonchophyllus (other view)

Myoxanthus lonchophyllus (plant view)

Octomeria aloifolia

Octomeria pinicola

Octomeria pinicola (close-up)

Oncidium fuscans (close-up)

Oncidium fuscans (plant view)

Oncidium fuscans (pollinary)

Oncidium heteranthum

Oncidium heteranthum (plant view)

Oncidium heteranthum (close-up)

Oncidium hians (frontal close-up)

Oncidium hians (plant view)

Oncidium hians (close-up angle)

Oncidium macronyx

Oncidium macronyx (inflorescence)

Phymatidium delicatulum

Phymatidium delicatulum (plant view)

Phymatidium aquinoi

Phymatidium aquinoi (close-up)

Phymatidium aquinoi (other view)

Pleurothallis crepiniana

Prescottia octopollinica

Prescottia octopollinica (inflorescence)

Prescottia octopollinica (plant view)

Restrepia seketii

Stelis intermedia

Stelis intermedia (inflorescence)

Stelis intermedia (plant view)

Stelis wettsteiniana

Stelis wettsteiniana (plant view)

Stelis wettsteiniana (close-up)

Zygostates bradei (anterior)

Zygostates bradei (plant view)

Zygostates bradei (posterior)

2. Website of Katia Seagull (Argentina)

Baptistonia lietzei (plant view)

Baptistonia lietzei (inflorescence)

Baptistonia lietzei (close)

Baptistonia lietzei (column)

Cattleya loddigesii

Coelogyne cristata

Coelogyne cristata

Coelogyne cristata

Epidendrum campestre (close)

Epidendrum campestre (plant view)

Epidendrum avicula (plant view)

Epidendrum avicula (inflorescence)

Epidendrum avicula (other angle)

Epidendrum avicula (other angle)

Epidendrum pseudoepidendrum (close)

Epidendrum pseudoepidendrum (column and lip)

Grobya amherstiae (plant view)

Grobya amherstiae (pseudobulbs and inflorescence)

Grobya amherstiae (inflorescence)

Grobya amherstiae (close)

Grobya amherstiae (other view)

Laelia crispata

Laelia lobata alba

Laelia lobata tipo

Laelia purpurata striata

Laelia purpurata venosa

Malaxis excavata (inflorescence)

Malaxis excavata (close)

Oncidium gardneri (close-up)

Oncidium gardneri (inflorescence)

Oncidium gardneri (column close-up )

Ornithocephalus myrticola (plant view)

Ornithocephalus myrticola (close 1)

Ornithocephalus myrticola (close 2 showing the pollinias)

Phragmipedium sargentianum

Phragmipedium sargentianum

Phragmipedium sargentianum

Pleurothallis crinita (plant view)

Pleurothallis crinita (close)

Pleurothallis crinita (close)

Pleurothallis crinita (close)

Pleurothallis crinita (close)

Pleurothallis strupifolia (plant view)

Pleurothallis strupifolia (inflorescence)

Pleurothallis strupifolia (close)

Restrepia seketii

Stelis argentata (plant view)

Stelis argentata (inflorescence)

Stelis argentata (close)

Zygostates lunata (plant view)

Zygostates lunata (frontal)

Zygostates lunata (lateral)

Zygostates lunata (other view)
  

3. Website Orchidaceae Brasilienses

Baptistonia  lietzei

Barbosella australis

Capanemia superflua

Encyclia randii

Maxillaria camaridii

Maxillaria chrysantha

Maxillaria tenuifolia

Maxillaria violaceopunctata

Schomburgkia superbiens