september 1999 north american native orchid journal

8/8/2019 September 1999 North American Native Orchid Journal

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NORTH AMERICAN NATIVEORCHID JOURNAL

______________________________________

Volume 5 SeptemberNumber 3 1999

a quarterly devoted to the orchids of North Americapublished by the

NORTH AMERICANNATIVE ORCHID ALLIANCE

* * * * * * *

* * * * * * *IN THIS ISSUE:PROCEEDINGS OF THE 4th ANNUAL NORTHAMERICAN NATIVE ORCHID CONFERENCE, Part 2COLOR VARIATION AND STRUCTURALABNORMALITIESIN CYPRIPEDIUM PARVIFLORUMVAR. PUBESCENSONLY IN FLORIDA!.and more


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NORTH AMERICAN NATIVEORCHID JOURNAL

Volume 5 September

Number 3 1999CONTENTS

NOTES FROM THE EDITOR201

FLORIDA - THE RULES ARE DIFFERENT HERE!John Beckner

203

CLASSIFICATION, THEORY AND PRACTICERobert L. Dressler

214LOOKING FORWARD:December 1999

231A REPORT ON THE USE OF FUNGI TO GERMINATE

SEEDS OF PLATANTHERA INTEGRA,P. LEUCOPHAEA, SPIRANTHES OVALISVAR.EROSTELLATA, AND ENCYCLIA TAMPENSIS

Lawrence W. Zettler233

THE ORCHIDS OF SOUTHERN FLORIDARoger A. Hammer

247A SPECIAL PLACE

The Slow Empiricist265

THOSE LADIES OF KENTUCKY;SLIPPER TYPES THAT IS

Tom Sampliner269


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RECENT TAXONOMIC AND DISTRIBUTIONALNOTES FROM FLORIDA 3.

Paul Martin Brown

277COLOR VARIATION AND STRUCTURALABNORMALITIES IN CYPRIPEDIUM PARVIFLORUM

VAR. PUBESCENSRonald A. Coleman

290

Color Plates:1. p. 295 - Zettler: Platanthera integra; P. leucophaea2. p. 296 - Empiricist: glass flowers3. p. 297 - Coleman: Cypripedium parviflorumvar.pubescensvariations

4. p. 298 - Coleman: Cypripedium parviflorumvar.pubescensvariations

Unless otherwise credited, all drawings in this issue are by Stan FolsomUnless otherwise credited graphics (charts, maps etc. ) are created by the

individual authors.The opinions expressed in theJournalare those of the authors. Scientific

articles may be subject to peer review and popular articles will be examined forboth accuracy and scientific content.

Volume 5, number 3, pages 201- 298; issued September 5, 1999.Copyright 1999 by theNorth American Native Orchid Alliance, Inc.

Cover: Polyradicion lindeniiby Stan Folsom


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NOTES FROM THE EDITOR

This September issue brings you four morepapers from the 4th Annual North American NativeOrchid Conference held last April in Tampa,Florida. One additional paper remains for theDecember issue - A History of the FakahatcheeStrandby Mike Owens. Please refer to the Marchissue for details of my paper on Spiranthes eatonii.

At this time we appear to be back on track with both the mailing and timing of the Journals.Starting with this issue we are experimenting with

plastic mailers instead of paper to try to minimizethe damage that has occurred to the paperenvelopes.

Please note several things in this issue:

Your 2000 renewal notice is includedClaims for lost or damaged December 1998 or

March & June 1999 issues must be made byDecember of 1999, pleaseRegistrations for the 5

thAnnual North American

Native Orchid Conference to be held from July 16-

20, 2000 in Olympic National Park, Port Angeles,

Washington are coming in every week, so do not


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delay in sending yours if you are planning to

attend.

The Journal is in need of articles for Volume 6

(2000) for the coming year. We do have a very

special 4-part series planned that will enumerate all of

the rare, threatened and endangered orchid species in

North America (north of Mexico) for each individual

state and province. Eventually the four articles will

be available as a special reference publication. Anne

& Ken Wagner are working on this project with me

and it promises to be interesting reading as well as an

excellent reference work.

Please send all correspondence after September 15to the Florida address.

Paul Martin Brown

Editor

PO Box 772121

Ocala, Florida 34477-2121

352/861-2565

[email protected]


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FLORIDA - THE RULES ARE

DIFFERENT HERE!

John Beckner

Welcome to Florida! We are the only state thathas a current best-selling book based upon its nativeorchids! Coming soon to a theatre near you will be themovie version, now in production under a majordirector.

Florida is currently the 4th state in population,having over 15 million. That does not count the 50million visitors each year. The infrastructure needed tosupport all these people has devastated theenvironment. We have perpetual near terminalpollution and water shortages. So we build and build,then build more, then invite more people in. We take alot of pride in our enormous secret and illegal economy,

the outstanding crime rates, and best of all, the truly vicious and strange nature of so many of our crimes.Years ago the state passed severe trespassing laws, the"Moonshiner Protection act", which mean that if youjump a fence to view an orchid, you can go straight tojail - if lucky. Or be shot by the landowner. But someof the best places to see orchids are on military bases,

with the warning that I have experienced several events


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are pineland and bog orchids of the southeastern coastalplain. These may be a fairly old group, since they tendto be fairly isolated taxonomically. There are 8 species

with western-Mexican ranges. But there are 7 speciesthat belong to African groups, with 3 of these speciesfound there., and there are 2 species with anomaloustropical Old World ties.

There are about 60 neotropical orchids, clearly derivedfrom the West Indies. Some are widespread, fromMexico to Brazil or even Argentina. In a dry pineland innorthernmost Florida is what we call "Species X'. Wehave not been able to see good flowers and even thegenus is unclear.

Our orchids are sometimes stable populations,but many occur as metapopulations, coming and goingdramatically over a few years. We can easily witness andrecord this, but we have very little to go on, when we tryto determine the causes. There is a lot of hand-wavingand pseudoscientific verbiage, but real studies arelacking. Our tropical orchids are overseas disjuncts,colonizing in the unstable way described by the Theoryof Island Biogeography. The whole environment is so

stressed, so constantly changing in radical ways thatmany present orchid colonies must be of very recentorigin. Yet these stresses can cause slow maturation ofplants, or, can pump in such an excess of resources thatsome plants grow very fast. Wild habitats of orchidsrepresent where they happen to grow. There is littlereason to equate the conditions with their optimumneeds. Some common terrestrials that are certainly


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native are found mostly along roadsides in similarrecently made artificial sites. Taxodium or cypress isone of our characteristic trees, dominating a majorhabitat. It entered the southeastern United States,including northern Florida, about 8,000 to 10,000 yearsago, reaching the Lake Placid area about 3,000 yearsago. The deep sinkholes in the Fakahatchee prove thatthe water level was hundreds of feet lower not long ago.

The almost total absence of pines or of wetland plantsin the peat bog strata that are over 6,000 years old, alsoshow how dramatic the ecological changes have been.

A few disasters that have shaped our biodiversity!Ed Petuch has good evidence that the terminal Eocene

extinctions, worldwide, are connected to the immensecrater that lies 1,000 feet below southern Florida. ChrisBarton's studies of the fractal math of hurricanes showsthat a Mach One will hit about every million years.

That means a 1,000 foot high storm surge off theAtlantic sweeps across to the Gulf. Every 100,000 yearswe can expect storms with winds of submach, but stilljet plane velocities. We have lots of local tornadoesevery year. Forest fires are of general occurrence. Thenearest we have to an endemic orchid, Calopogon

multiflorus, is strongly adapted to fire. Last year, FlaglerCounty had a total evacuation due to fires.

The rules are different here. We grow most ofour garden vegetables and flowering annuals in the

winter. Our thunderheads are twice as high as cloudselsewhere. We have more lightning than anywhere elseon the planet. On a clear summer day the sun's light is


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as intense as in the Sahara. Our soils are very poor innutrients. We have an ornamental plant industry that isbigger than our Citrus or fishing. Orchids are sopopular that we have large nurseries phasing out shrubsand ground covers, so as to concentrate onPhalaenopsis , Dendrobiums, Vandas, Oncidiums. Wehave more orchid researchers, many of them in just twomoderate size cities: Gainesville and Sarasota, than youcan find in most countries or continents. We havemore orchid judges, orchid shows, and other activitiesthan anywhere. We are the world's exit port to the restof the solar system. Phalaenopsis were the onlyornamentals that would thrive and flower well in spacestations.

For reasons that I hope you are beginning to see,we have a terrible conservation crisis in Florida. Orchidsare useful as indicators of environmental conduits.Some positive steps are being taken in Florida, but a lotmore are needed and could be achieved. Unfortunately,not everyone is giving better than lip service. Orchidscan be the basis of benefits to the total conservationpicture. But, in any case, they have such great interest,so much popularity, that there are many people who

want to achieve things with them.

Orchids are primarily popular because of thebeauty and because of the unusual character of theirflowers. Colors, odors, shapes give us beauty. Thebilateral symmetry the innate human response to faces.


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This appears within hours of birth, and remains apowerful factor throughout our lives-As a child grows,it wishes to handle things Orchids are mostly in theconvenient size range for this. The need to explore theadjacent environment, learn how to deal with it, andthus survive, plus the need to gather in and useresources such as food, leads children to becomecollectors. It speaks volumes about the intellectualpoverty of psychologists that they scarcely mention thissubject. But such giants of the field as Pavlov and laterHumphrey, have written stimulating studies of thecollecting obsession. I rather suspect that any gatheringof orchid people will include at least a few incurablecollecting addicts. I want to stress that this can involve

photographs, books, information, nursery bred plants,not just the illegal collecting of native plants. In anincreasingly urbanized society, the rat-race drives manypeople out-of-doors, to exercise, enjoy natural beauty,clear the brain with new experiences.

Our economy and society is now nearly worldwide. The coming century will bring usextraordinary benefits, and will sometimes extract aterrible price for them. Exponential growth is not just

bodies consuming resources. Ideas are growing, as aremany other aspects of our lives. The resultingcomplexities will grow even more complex. Florida is atthe cutting edge of all this. I have seen well-educatedbasically sound minds from the Third World go intosevere culture shock, within hours of coming to Florida.

The rules are different here, the stresses can be harsh.Make no mistake - in most parts of the world there are


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growing movements to save our biotic heritage, findsaner social systems, live happier lives. These battles areNOT lost, are not hopeless. But they are notguaranteed to win, much less win any easy victories. Wemust act, act intelligently, make the right results happen.Leaving nature alone ensures losses. In the face of

widespread pesticides, for example, the orchidpollinators are facing extinction. Metapopulations will

vanish, unable to go on, unless the pollinators areabundant.

Tropical orchids are extensively cultivated in onlya small percent of the species. But the totals are so vast,that an overwhelming range of orchids are in

greenhouses. They tend to be the larger flowers andmore colorful kinds. The 1% of orchid species that arenative to this continent include some beautiful kinds, byanyone's' standards. But they are mostly terrestrials.

They are mostly notoriously hard to grow.Metapopulations again. Although it has long beenillegal to collect wild orchids in Florida, the epiphytes,often with relatively modest flowers, have beencollected throughout the 20th Century. The plantsoften are short-lived. Well, if you can't grow the

orchids of North America, you could take photos. It islegal, it provides an excuse to head out of town on

weekends, and it provides great prospects to exercisethe Sin of Pride. What fun! It doesn't really accomplish

very much, however. With a checklist to mark off, it hasmuch the same character as Audubon Society birding.

With sets of pictures to gloat over, it is not verydifferent from stamp or coin collecting. One thing that


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does not result is much progress in tough conservationmatters. Yes, some good has resulted, but mostly a lotof rationalizations.

Meanwhile, the academic world went off onother tangents. Fearful of fighting powerful vestedinterests, many academics have found safety indeconstructionism, political correctness, faculty politics,computers and ivory tower labs emphasizing esoterictechniques. While government agencies were taking onincreasing responsibilities for the environment, non-govermental organizations (NGO's) were battling theinterests and rallying a growing popular interest. Muchof the academic world retreated into environmental

irrelevancy, blocking funds and energies for fieldbiology, demanding students work on which fad iscurrent, and above all, praying that Congress will notsucceed in its growing mood of choking off all researchunless it serves either immediate military or industrialneeds.

We do not know what pollinates most of ourorchids. We don't know much about the life-cycles ofthe pollinators. We know far to little about mycorrhizae,

although Larry Zettler and a few other lonely souls aredoing what they can. We can't even keep Polyrhizaseedlings alive very long in a greenhouse, once they arecyeflasked. We don't know why. Why have some oncecommon orchids all but disappeared? No one knows,few are trying to find out. Anyone who knows anythingabout systems knows that the various rates of activityare crucial. And that priorities must be set accordingly.


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Is this being done? Not much. If it can't be refuted, atleast in theory, it isn't science. If it contribute to betterunderstanding, it really isn't science. To know what little

we do know about any of our orchids, we have to lookat everything recorded under all of its names, not justthe one that is correct under the current code. To knowanything about it, we have b look at all of the closelyallied taxa. So how much does nomenclatural tidying upmatter? How much do arguments about what is aspecies or genus (mystical fantasies left over from

Aristotle) matter? How much does it really matter just where we set the boundaries of taxa? People babblethat we will just put it all on a computer. We have beenlooking at the cost of that. Millions of dollars and many

years of work. Both the National Science Foundationand American Orchid Society have rejected paying forsuch. Conservation is urgent.

What will come in 20 years will be too late. I amspeaking of Florida, but obviously matters are equallyurgent elsewhere. I became interested in orchidsthrough growing a couple of plants while in gradeschool. My first real job was after high school hoursplus weekends in an orchid nursery. While in school, I

read Julian Huxley's Evolution: The Modern Synthesisand Ledyard Stebbins' Variation and Evolution inPlants. I knew very little about orchids, but I could seethat something was wrong. Facts about orchids did notalways line up with the evolutionary ideas stated in thesebooks. I decided to find out why. Half a century later, isee even more conflicts between biological theories andorchid realities. But I still haven't figured out all the


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reasons. Douglas Gill's points about deception flowers,for example, raise major issues.

I studied Botany, worked in nurseries, did plantindentification's, taught classes, did landscaping, becamean AOS judge, did various things, and kept looking atorchids, in Florida, and elsewhere. The growingconservation crisis led the AOS, in 1989, to urge each ofits affiliates to set up a conservation committee. The

well known murder writer Karen Wilson was then thePresident of the Florida West Coast Orchid Society anddid dreadful things to push into heading such a group. Itold her to kill people, using a certain orchid. In Circle ofWolves she wiped out most of the retirees in the St.

Petersburg area, using this. Do NOT ask for details, which are based on a scientific paper. Anyway, webecame The Orchid Conservation Committee, a not-for-profit corporation, and have achieved a great dealfor a small group. It can be done. Meanwhile I becameCurator of the Orchid Identification Center files at theMarie Selby Botanical Gardens. We have now becomea major center for pulling together the immensities oforchid knowledge. We have major projects on severalcontinents and are more and more turned to, even by

larger institutions, for various kinds of help.

This is Florida and the rules are different here.Along with quite an interesting group of friends, I amout doing things that will matter as time goes by. Weare studying orchid populations, ecologies, working withother organizations all over Florida and far beyond. Wemeet at 6 AM, drive long distances, dodge snakes,


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wasps, and alligators, fall in holes while wading, andcollapse in bed at 10 PM after a hot shower. We'rehaving more fun than anybody else. We are makingsome things happen. The rules are different here,because we are rewriting them, to do what we thinkneeds doing.

This is Florida. Welcome to one of the mostdangerous, troubled place, where needs are urgent.

John Beckner, John was the keynote speaker for the 4thAnnual North American Native Orchid Conferencein Tampa, Florida onApril 10 & 11, 1999.


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CLASSIFICATION, THEORY AND PRACTICE

Robert L. Dressler

Classification must be one of the oldest humanactivities. One imagines that the early cave-dwellersmanaged to communicate ideas such as "that fruit isgood," "that animal bites," or "that snake is poisonous."Even today, the few remaining "primitive" cultures thatlive in close contact with nature are able tocommunicate very effectively about the flora and fauna

of their area, and especially about those species that theyuse in any way. In Papua New Guinea, tribesmen namemost of the same bird species that ornithologistsrecognize, though they may sometimes "lump" underone name a pair of small, insignificant birds that are oflittle interest as food, even though the better woodsmenknow that they are really different kinds.

There may be many kinds of classification. Writers of field guides may group plants according to

their flower color. A landscape architect might classplants according to their size and the texture of theirfoliage. Each of these is a special-purpose classificationthat might be quite useless for a different purpose. I

will discuss primarily the phylogenetic classification thatbiologists favor, and I will try to convince you that sucha classification has many advantages as a general-purpose system.


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One of the first attempts to offer a writtensystem of classification was that of Aristotle. TheGreek philosophers were not fond of going into thefield and getting their sandals dirty. For them,classification was a mental activity that could be done athome, with a minimum of actual observation.

Later works on classification were written toshow the goodness of God, who created a world ofdiversity for the use and convenience of man. Suchbooks said very little about ugly parasites, such asGuinea worms, that surely must have been designed in adifferent department. Later studies were justified as

attempts to understand God's plan. One is reminded ofthe story of the priests who visited Huxley. One ofthem asked, "what do your studies tell you about God?"Huxley is said to have replied, "He has an extraordinaryfondness for small beetles."

Of course, the earlier pre-Darwinianclassifications were not avowedly phylogenetic, yet theidea of "natural" groups and "artificial" groupsdeveloped among classifiers, ideas that would seem

meaningless except with reference to phylogeny. Pre-Darwinian writers did sometimes hint at something likeevolution or phylogeny. Erasmus Darwin, thegrandfather of Charles Darwin, was one such writer.Later, Wallace noted that the most similar species didnot occur together, nor were they scattered at random;rather they occurred in neighboring areas. It is clearthat the time was ripe for the idea of evolution when


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Wallace and Darwin presented their idea of naturalselection. Though the time was ripe, the idea of naturalselection was not well received by the public. HadDarwin or Wallace offered a scheme in which eachspecies consciously fought to ascend the "scale ofnature," the idea might have been much more popular.

The public felt that "natural selection" was much toomechanical and rather soulless.

By now, it is clear that the world has existed formany millions of years, and that there have beenenormous changes, changes that would have been quiteinconceivable to any biblical prophet. The concept ofnatural selection has been quite generally accepted by

biologists. Interestingly enough, though, theintroduction and spread of this concept had little effecton the practice of classification. Systematists continuedto work with no particular theory (or many conflictingtheories), and the practice continued to be about asintuitive and idiosyncratic as it had been before Darwinand Wallace.

Some principals of traditional systematicsBefore discussing the "revolution" that

systematics has experienced in the last few decades, Iwill present some general ideas that developed throughtime, some of them still quite valid.

First, one must admit that there are goodtaxonomists, mediocre taxonomists and bad ones (as inall activities, I am sure). It's probably safest not tomention the names of any living taxonomists in this


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respect. Perhaps the ideal example for my purpose is F.Krnzlin, who died years ago. He published a revisionof the genus Telipogon

, a group that is very distinctiveand easy to recognize. Yet, in that revision, hepublished, as a Telipogon

, a species that is nowrecognized as a Dimerandra. How this could happen, Iam not sure. On another occasion he published Macradenia mexicana. The flowers on which he basedthat name were actually a species ofCranichis. A list ofKrnzlin's "misfiring in generic target practice" is givenby Garay & Romero-Gonzlez (1998). We have hadgreat problems with the genus Oncidium, and many ofthese problems are due to a revision published byKrnzlin. Krnzlin cited Oncidium ornithorrhynchumfrom

Costa Rica, and the species may well occur in CostaRica, though I have seen no material collected in thewild. The Costa Rican specimen that Krnzlin labelledas O. ornithorrhynchum is actually what we are used tocallingO. obryzatum. Unfortunately, Reichenbach, whodescribed O. obryzatum

, had earlier described the samespecies as O. klotzschianum. I much prefer O. obryzatum

,but according to the rules of nomenclature, we must useO. klotzschianum. The point here is that many of thename changes that so enrage gardeners and orchidists,

are simply not our fault. They are due to sloppy workdone in the past.

Defined classes - The early philosophers felt that classes were

defined groups. Indeed, some feel that the biologicalentities we "classify" are not classes at all. Certainly


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biological groups are exceedingly difficult to define,with variation, mutation and developmental quirks all working to falsify any clear definition. One of theGreek philosophers defined man as a featherlessbiped, then another brought in a plucked chicken andsaid "this is man."

Philosophical types - The Greek philosophers felt that each class is

represented by an idealized "type," with the actualmembers of the class approaching the type in greater orlesser degree. One assumes that the idealized "type" ofdog is somehow more noble and doglike than anyordinary cur. This idea has little relevance to modern

biology, but some of the ideas of "typology" persist andare hard to eradicate.

When biologists decided to select a singlespecimen as the "name-bearing specimen" for eachspecies, the word "type" was, unfortunately, chosen,thus leading to confusion between "name-bearingspecimen" and the philosophical "Typus." The typespecimen is a sort of nomenclatural landmark. There isno reason for it to be in any way "typical" of the species,

and it may be quite atypical, often simply the firstspecimen recognized as being a distinct species. Inpractice, species should be delimited on the basis of allavailable material. Once one has delimited the speciesof a given group, the type specimens should beconsulted to determine the correct names for thespecies.


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Single feature classification -If we can identify a species or a genus by a single

feature, that feature is emphasized as a key character,but neither species nor genera should be based onsingle, isolated features. To do so is almost a guaranteeof an artifical classification. One of the most obviouslyartificial classifications is the separation of Laelia andCattleyaon the number of pollinia. The Mexican Laelias(the true Laelias, as they include the type species of thegenus) are not very closely allied either to the BrazilianLaelias or to the Cattleyas, while Laelia sectionCattleyodes is very closely allied to Cattleya. The speciesare similar in both plant and flower, and natural

"intergeneric" hybrids occur wherever the two "genera"grow together. Unfortunately, the horticultural world isaccustomed to usingLaeliafor the L. purpuratacomplex,and will resist any attempt to improve the classification.

While some plants may be identified by usingsingle features, the classification should be based on thecorrelation of as many features as possible.

Fundamental features -

Early systematists wasted a good deal of time andpaper over the issue of fundamental features.Supposedly, some features are fundamental and canalways be given great weight in classification, whileothers have minor importance. Unfortunately, thefeature that seems quite "fundamental" in one groupmay vary within species of another group. About all


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that one can say is that good features are those thatwork - when they do work.

Parallelism and convergence - These patterns are of great interest in biology.

Some recent authors have defined these terms quiteexactly but in a rather trivial way. I try to keepsomething close to the traditional meaning, which doesdeserve recognition and discussion. I use parallelism forthe independent evolution of a similar feature in twodifferent groups. When the two groups are onlydistantly related, the pattern is usually quite obvious. Iuse convergence to indicate those cases whereecological factors have led to parallelism in several

different features, so that the independent groups maybe quite similar in some features. The superficialresemblances between some American cacti and some

African Euphorbias are a good case of convergence in vegetative features. We often find convergencebetween different plant groups that are pollinated by thesame class of agents. Moth-pollinated flowers tend tobe white or pale green, fragrant at night and often havelong, slender spurs. Fly-pollinated flowers tend to havedark, lurid colors and (to our senses) very disagreeable

perfumes. Bird-pollinated flowers tend to lack perfumeand have bright pink, orange or red colors, thicktexture, tubular form, and, in orchids, structure thatguides the bird's beak near the rostellum. Again,convergence in distantly related groups is easilyrecognized as such, but convergence in closely relatedgroups may lead to an artificial classification.


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Primates, like birds, perceive the bright colors ofbird-pollinated flowers, and this syndrome seems todeceive us more often than others. The genus Hexisea,as represented by the very similar H. bidentata and H.imbricata, is vegetatively very similar to Scaphyglottis butshows the classic hummingbird-pollination syndrome.Hexisea has been delimited in various ways. Someauthors include all Scaphyglottis-like plants with "sigmoid"lip and column foot, which makes a very heterogeneousgroup, indeed. I earlier tried to restrict Hexisea to theScaphyglottis-like plants with orange or red flowers, buteven this is surely an artificial group. The floral detailsofScaphyglottis sigmoideaand S. arctataare quite different

from those of H. bidentata

, as are their vegetativefeatures. It is probable that Hexisea, by whateverdelimitation, is simply an artifical grouping ofScaphyglottis species that are pollinated byhummingbirds or have well-developed nectaries at thebase of the flower.

Angraecum is a group of primarily African moth-pollinated orchids in the Vandeae. "Angraecum"philipinensis was assigned to this group, but is now

treated as Amesiella philipinensis

, a member of theprimarily Asiatic Aeridinae. Similarly, "Angraecum"falcatum from Japan is now Neofinetia falcata. In eachcase, the Asiatic plant crosses more easily with other

Asiatic plants than withAngraecum

, and has the samechromosome number as the other Asiatic plants.


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Monophyletic and polyphyletic - These two concepts are critical in biological

classification. A "natural," or monophyletic group isone that is derived from a single common ancestor (aspecies, that is) and, in modern usage, includes alldescendents of that common ancestor. An "artificial"or polyphyletic group is one that is derived from two (ormore) ancestral species. The genus Angraecum

, then, ispolyphyletic if it includes either A. falcatumor A.philippinense. The term "clade" is now commonly usedfor a monophyletic group, the term may be used for anysize group, from species to family or order. Thecontrasting term, "grade" refers to a "group" whosemembers are similar in some feature or features but is

not monophyletic. The term "cladistics" is now usedfor phylogenetic analysis, and its practitioners areknown as "cladists."

The traditional orchid classifications remind meof the old story of the elephant and the blind men.Each blind man touches a different part of the elephantand confidently asserts that the elephant is very like asnake, a fan, a tree, a wall or a rope, depending on thepart of the elephant's anatomy he touches.

Lindley used the pollinia as the main basis for hisorchid classification. Pollinia are certainly important inclassification, but there is some parallellism, and theexagerated use of number, alone, has led to artificialclassifications, as in Laelia, Brachionidium, Broughtonia, andother genera. Pfitzer argued that some specimens


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lacked pollinia, and preferred to use leaf vernation asthe main basis of his classification. Still a great manyspecimens lack developing leaves, and I have seen asingle plant of Zygopetalumwith conduplicate vernationon one shoot and convolute vernation on another.Clearly, this is another important feature, but neither ofthese features is, by itself, sufficient basis for a system oforchid classification.

The modern revolutioon There has been something of a revolution in

systematic biology during the last half century, though ithas been a chaotic and disorderly process. This hasresulted primarily from the efforts of Willi Hennig, a

German biologist who published from about 1935 until1962. Hennig did most of his work in entomology, andit is clear that he wished to develop a theory or amethod of classification. He worked largely in isolationfrom other biologists and he had an opaque, difficultstyle of writing. Hennig's major work has beentranslated to both English and Spanish, but the Spanishedition, published in Argentina, is a much bettertranslation. It is by no means light reading, bot thearguments can be followed. Hennig also delighted in

inventing complex new terms. Unfortunately, many ofhis early followers had much the same style. There wasmuch heated disagreement between Hennig's followersand traditional systematists, often quite futile discussionin which each side used the same terms with quitedifferent meanings.


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Hennig's greatest contribution was perhaps theidea that one can determine phylogeny by the analysis ofliving species. The most closely allied species will sharemost of their features, while more distantly alliedspecies will share fewer features. Hennig offered severalprincipals, some of which seem rather obvious inretrospect.1. The common ancestors of living species are not

now living.2. Living groups are not derived from other living

groups, but from common ancestors.3. Primitive (ancestral) features are of little value in

analysis. Primitive features may indicate something of agroup's ancestry, but they are not dependable in

determining relationships within the group. For thispurpose, only derived features are useful. Thissomewhat counterintuitive idea may be clarified byfigure 1.

Primitive and derived are clearly relative terms,and the "polarity" of different character states is clearlycritical in phylogenetic analysis. Various ways havebeen suggested for determining this polarity, but theonly technique that has survived critical consideration is

"outgroup comparison." Ideally, one compares thestudy group with its sister group, or with severalpossible sister groups (since the sister group may not beknown until after the analysis). If, as in figure 2, onecharacter state is found in all (or most) of the possiblesister groups, this state is the probable primitivecondition, with different derived states in each group.


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4. Speciation is thought to be dichotomous. That is,when speciation occurs, the ancestral species disappearsand is replaced by two daughter species. This ideaprobably met with greater opposition from traditionalsystematists than any other aspect of Hennig's ideas. Itmust be emphasized, though, that this is not a theory ofspeciation, but an assumption that makes analysis andthe drawing of diagrams much easier. In a study nearthe species level with widespread and long-lived speciesand many peripheral derivatives, the rigid assumption ofdichotomy might distort biological reality, but at genericand higher levels, this may not be a problem.5. Two groups that share a common ancestor should

form a single group, though it may have subgroups.

Thus, common ancestors are included in the groupsderived from them. In the analysis of extant groups,this usually means that quite hypothetical ancestralspecies are included in the groups derived from them.Nonetheless, this principal may have quite practicalapplications. For years paleontologists tried to draw theline between the "mammal-like reptiles" and themammals, but the mammals appeared to be polyphyleticby every definition. Now we realize that the "mammal-like reptiles" might better be considered "reptile-like

mammals," and both groups are easily distinguishedback to their origins.5. Parsimony - Hennig said little about parsimony,

simply accepting it as a basic, scientific principal. Latercladists have emphasized parsimony as an essential partof phylogenetic analysis.


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It is clear that cladists try to construct ahierarchical system of classification that reflectsphylogeny as closely as possible. For small groups, onemay do analysis with pencil and paper, but this becomes

very difficult with large groups and large suites offeatures. Fortunately, several computer programs areavailable to analyse the data. In the early days of heateddiscussion between cladists and traditional taxonomists,the traditional taxonomists were accused of beingsubjective and quite unscientific (sometimes quitejustifiably). Amusingly enough, the computer programsdesigned for cladistic analysis all include some methodfor adjusting the results if the researcher feels thisnecessary.

ConclusionI have tried to give you a summary of the

changes that we have seen in the ideas and practice ofclassification during my lifetime. Some feel that plantshave all been classified, and there is no need to wastetime with classification in this day and age. Those of us

who go out and look at plants and try to identify themrealize how wrong this idea is. There are still manyplants that have not been classified, and many of the

classifications done in the last two centuries desperatelyneed to be redone with modern ideas and techniques.

I have mentioned the superiority of phylogeneticclassifications. These are the only classifications thatcan give us more information than we put into them.

That is, if the most of the features sampled support aclassification, then we may expect most of theunsampled features to agree with the classification. If


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we find a cancer cure in a rare herb, the best place tolook for another source of the substance is in otherspecies of the same genus - if we are using aphylogenetic classification.

Literature CitedGaray, L. A., & G. A. Romero-Gonzlez. 1988. Schedulae

Orchidum. Harvard Pap. Bot. 3: 53-62.

Robert L. Dressler, 21305 NW 86th Avenue, Micanopy,Florida 32667Dr. Dressler is one of the leading orchidists in the worldtoday and has authored enumerable papers as well asseveral books including the Orchids of Costa Rica and


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LegendsFigure 1. The phylogeny of a hypothetical group in

which the primitive state of a given feature isrepresented as 0. Four other states have evolvedindependently within the group. Any one of the derivedstates may be taken as evidence of close relationships,but the persistence of the primitive state is not evidenceof close relationship.


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Figure 2. Outgroup comparison. In three hypotheticalclosely related groups, the state "A" of a given feature isfound in each group, while another, different state (orstates) of the feature is found in each group. One

would conclude that "A" is the ancestral state for thefeature in question.


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LOOKING FORWARD

DECEMBER 1999

Orchids of the Pine Barrens of New Jersey

Facts and tips for Cypripedium acaule

White Fairy-slippers in Alberta

A History of the Fakahatchee Strand

Habenaria quinquesetaand Habenaria macroceratitis

and more!!!!!!


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A REPORT ON THE USE OF FUNGI TOGERMINATE SEEDS OF

PLATANTHERA INTEGRA,P. LEUCOPHAEA, SPIRANTHES OVALIS

VAR. EROSTELLATA, AND ENCYCLIATAMPENSIS

Lawrence W. ZettlerIntroduction

The use of mycorrhizal fungi to germinateorchid seed (=symbiotic seed germination) has receivedgrowing interest in North America this decade (Zettler,1996). Although some species have been successfully

propagated in this manner (e.g., Platanthera integrilabia,Spiranthes magnicamporum), the vast majority of our nativeorchids - common and rare alike - continue to persist

without reliable culture methods. For conservationpurposes, the establishment of artificially-grown,fungus-infected seedlings intosuitable habitats is desirable for long-term orchidsurvival (Zettler, 1997).

This paper will briefly discuss the ongoing effortsdirected at using fungi to propagate three terrestrialorchids (Platanthera integra, P. leucophaea, Spiranthes ovalis

var. erostellata) and oneepiphyte (Encyclia tampensis) from seed.

Platanthera integra(Nuttall) Gray ex Beck


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The yellow fringeless-orchid, Platanthera integra, islisted as threatened in North Carolina, and is in declinein South Carolina (R. Porcher, The Citadel, pers. com.).

Along the southeastern coastal plain, the speciesinhabits wet meadows and pinelands (Luer, 1975) whereit is vulnerable to habitat destruction and collectors (Fig.1). In 1995, I had the opportunity to collect seed androot samples ofP. integrafrom North Carolinas GreenSwamp, after receiving permission from The NatureConservancy. The root-like organs of the speciesyielded a fungus that appeared to belong to theanamorphic genus Epulorhiza(Moore, 1987) -- a genusfrequently isolated from southeastern orchids (Currah,Zettler and McInnis, 1997). Seeds were obtained from

yellowing, mature capsules, dried over desiccant andstored in darkness at -7 C. Twenty-eight monthsfollowing their collection, seeds were inoculated withthe P. integra fungus by two of my students, JenniferSunley and Tonya Wilson Delaney. To determine ifP.integrawas capable of utilizing a broad range of fungalisolates to initiate seed germination, they also inoculatedseeds with a fungus from the orange fringed orchid, P.ciliaris(L.) Lindley, and a third fungus from the monkey-face orchid, P. integrilabia (Correll) Luer, both from

Tennessee. Interestingly, all fungi initiated seedgermination within 42 days, but only the P. integrilabia-derived fungus promoted seedling development to aleaf-bearing stage (Zettler, Sunley and Delaney, 1999).

Whether the P. integra fungus is capable of sustainingseedlings at the Green Swamp to a leaf-bearing stageand beyond is not known; however, the study doesillustrate a need to recover a wider range of fungi from


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unrelated orchid taxa from distant regions forconservation purposes.

Platanthera leucophaea(Nuttall) Lindley

A native orchid in serious need of propagation isthe eastern prairie fringed-orchid, Platanthera leucophaea(Fig. 2). Historical records indicate the species hasdeclined 70% across the United States as a result ofhabitat conversion to agriculture (Bowles, 1999), andhabitat destruction poses the greatest threat to theremaining populations (M. L. Bowles, The Morton

Arboretum, pers. com.). Unfortunately, most of theremaining populations contain fewer than 50 plants, and

very few have more than 100 (Bowles, 1999) leadingsome to fear that inbreeding depression is acceleratingP. leucophaeas decline. Compounding matters, many ofthe remaining populations are threatened by woodyplant succession through improper site management,overcollecting, and draining of adjacent wetlands(Bowles, 1999).

In 1996, I was contacted by Marlin Bowles andKarel Jacobs of The Morton Arboretum in Lisle,

Illinois, to conduct an intensive, collaborative effort topropagate P. leucophaea from seed. Upon closeexamination, few of P. leucophaeas seeds appear tocontain viable embryos. From one population, forexample, between 17-25% of the seeds containedseemingly-viable embryos. This number is considerablylow when compared to seeds of some southeasternPlatanthera species, including the threatened monkey-


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face orchid, P. integrilabia. Because of this precarioussituation, our efforts are currently directed at obtainingseed from substantially larger populations where crosspollinations between unrelated individuals are morelikely. Indeed, preliminary findings suggest that embryo

viability from one such population may exceed 50%,and efforts are underway to germinate this seed withfungi. Although this finding seems promising, our datafrom previous experiments suggest that P. leucophaeaembryos must overcome one or more dormancymechanisms. Recently, my student, Scott L. Stewart,succeeded in germinating seeds after soaking the seedsfor prolonged (>1 hr) periods in a dilute solution ofhousehold bleach; however, seed germination

percentages were low. We will soon investigate whetherseed germination percentages can be increased bycold/moist-stratification prior to sowing, as indicated bypreliminary germination studies (Bowles et al. 1998).

Additionally, we will determine if a white light pre-treatment can be used to increase germinationpercentages as observed for P. integrilabia (Zettler andMcInnis, 1994). An attempt will also be made toisolate fungi from P. leucophaeaseedlings that germinatein the natural habitat using retrievable seed packets

described by Rasmussen and Whigham (1993). Thusfar, mature P. leucophaea plants from populations inIllinois and Michigan have yielded fungal isolatestentatively identified as a species ofCeratorhiza, possiblyC. goodyera-repentis (Moore, 1987). Compared to strainsof Epulorhiza, our Ceratorhiza isolates often overgroworchid seedlings in vitro, forming dense masses of fungalmycelium that may or may not prove detrimental to


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seedling development. We remain optimistic that P.leucophaea seedlings with a mycotrophic capability willone day be reintroduced into suitable habitatsthroughout the Midwest.

Spiranthes ovalisLindley var. erostellataCatling

The northern oval ladies-tresses, Spiranthes ovalisvar. erostellata, is an easily overlooked terrestrial orchidthat inhabits rich, damp forests in shaded humus (Luer,1975). In central Illinois, the species can be found infragmented, large patches of forest between agriculturalfields, but it is seldom seen, even in flower. Aftermonths of searching, my students and I located a single

S. ovalis var. erostellata flowering specimen growingadjacent to a rotting log in woods just west of IllinoisCollege.

Upon returning to the site in the fall, all flowerson the inflorescence had developed capsules, and wepresumed that the flowers were self-pollinated. Onestudent, Melissa Brooks, decided to attempt seedgermination, and she proceeded to obtain a root samplefor fungal isolations. The roots yielded an unusual

fungus that resembled some strains of Ceratorhiza, butthe fungus remains unidentified. Over 1,000 seeds werecollected from the capsules, and were inoculated withthe fungus in vitro following cold storage.

After 160 days of incubation in darkness, most(>80%) of the seeds failed to germinate; however, oneof the germinated seeds grew to a substantial size and


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initiated leaves, suggesting that the fungus wasmycorrhizal with the orchid. Currently, an effort isunderway by University of Illinois - Springfield graduatestudent, Andrew Munkacsi, to identify the fungus usingelectron microscopy. Additional experiments await ourattention, assuming more plants can be located.

Encyclia tampensis(Lindley) Small

Few studies have been directed at germinatingseeds of epiphytic orchids using fungi because of therelative ease by which these plants can be propagated onnutrient media lacking fungi. Nevertheless, all orchids -epiphytes and terrestrials alike - require fungi in nature

to sustain their life cycles, and this fact alone justifiesthe use of fungi to grow epiphytic orchids forconservation purposes. Consequently, two of mystudents, Juliette Burkhead and Jillian Marshall,attempted to germinate seeds of the commercially-exploited Florida butterfly orchid, Encyclia tampensis,using a fungus (Epulorhiza spp.) from the green-flyorchid, Epidendrum conopseumR. Brown. The fungus waschosen because of its ability to promote seedgermination and advanced seedling development of E.

conopseum in vitro (Zettler, Delaney and Sunley, 1998).Seed germination ofE. tampensiscommenced within 21days after fungal inoculation, and germinationpercentages were high (>99%). After 13 weeks ofincubation, about 2% of the seedlings initiated leaves,and these seedlings harbored pelotons - fungalstructures indicative of an established symbiosisbetween orchid and fungus (Zettler, Burkhead and


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Marshall, 1999). Curiously, most of the leaf-bearingseedlings originated from well-spaced seeds within thePetri dishes. We suspected that the seedlings depletedthe limited fungus/carbohydrate supply thereby limitingtheir development. To test this hypothesis, anotherexperiment was carried out by Jillian Marshall andOliver Reid to determine if seedling development couldbe enhanced by reducing the number of seeds sown perdish. Indeed, only 7% of the inoculated seedlingsdeveloped leaves at a high density (200+ seeds per dish)compared to 74% at a low density (1-10 per dish)(Marshall, Reid and Zettler, 1999). Based on theseresults, epiphytic orchids like E. tampensis may becandidates for symbiotic techniques, further enhancing

orchid conservation.

Conclusion

The survival of our native orchids in nature willultimately depend on the ability of established plants tospawn seedlings, but this will only result if mycorrhizalfungi are available for seed germination.

As orchid habitats continue to be destroyed by

humans, the possibility exists that certain types ofmycorrhizal fungi needed by orchids will be lost unlessthey too are preserved and utilized in conservation (e.g.,symbiotic seed germination). Currently, the mosteffective means to obtain fungi is to extract them fromliving orchid tissues, preferably seedlings, but thisprospect diminishes as orchid numbers continue todecline (Rasmussen, 1995). Therefore, every attempt


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should be made to preserve orchids and their nativehabitats in order to safeguard mycorrhizal fungi for usein conservation. Although this paper illustrates progressbeing made to propagate four orchid species usingfungi, the vast majority of North American nativeorchids await attention.

Acknowledgments

I kindly thank Scott L. Stewart (The IllinoisCollege) for his helpful critique of this manuscript, andPaul Martin Brown (Ocala, Florida) for the opportunityto present this paper at the 4th Annual North AmericanNative Orchid Conference in Tampa.

Literature Cited

Bowles, M. L. 1999. Eastern prairie fringed orchid(Platanthera leucophaea) Federal recovery plan.Dept.of the Interior, U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Bowles, M. L., K. Jacobs, L. W. Zettler, and T. WilsonDelaney. 1998. Seed germination of the federalthreatened eastern prairie fringed orchid

[Platanthera leucophaea (Nutt.) Lindl.]. IllinoisDept. Natural Resources report.

Currah, R. S., L. W. Zettler, and T. M. McInnis, Jr.1997. Epulorhiza inquilina sp. nov. fromPlatanthera (Orchidaceae) and a key to Epulorhizaspecies. Mycotaxon61: 335-342.


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Luer, C. A. 1975. The Native Orchids of the UnitedStates and Canada, Excluding Florida. New YorkBotanical Garden, Bronx, New York.

Marshall, J. A., O. B. Reid, and L. W. Zettler. 1999. Abeneficial effect of low seed density on thedevelopment of Encyclia tampensis (Orchidaceae):First demonstration for an epiphytic orchid.Assoc. Southeastern Biol. Bull. 46(2): 197 (abstract).

Moore, R. T. 1987. The genera of Rhizoctonia-likefungi: Ascorhizoctonia, Ceratorhiza gen. nov.,

Epulorhiza gen. nov., Moniliopsis andRhizoctonia. Mycotaxon29: 29-91.

Rasmussen, H. N. 1995. Terrestrial Orchids: FromSeed to Mycotrophic Plant. Cambridge Univ.Press. Cambridge, UK.

Rasmussen, H. N. and D. F. Whigham. 1993. Seedecology of dust seeds in situ: A new studytechnique and its application in terrestrialorchids. Am. J. Bot. 80: 1374-1378.

Zettler, L. W. 1996. Symbiotic seed germination ofterrestrial orchids in North America since 1990 -a progress report. In: C. Allen [ed.], Proceedingsof the North American Native Orchid TerrestrialOrchid Propagation and Production Conference,pp. 43-53. National Arboretum, Washington,D.C., USA.


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Zettler, L. W. 1997. Orchid-fungal symbiosis and itsvalue in conservation. McIlvainea13(1): 40-45.

Zettler, L. W., J. C. Burkhead, and J. A. Marshall. 1999.Use of a mycorrhizal fungus from Epidendrum conopseumto germinate seeds of Encyclia tampensis in vitro.Lindleyana(in press).

Zettler, L. W., T. Wilson Delaney, and J. A. Sunley.1998. Seed propagation of the epiphytic green-fly orchid, Epidendrum conopseum, using itsendophytic fungus. Selbyana19(2): 249-253.

Zettler, L. W. and T. M. McInnis, Jr. 1994. Light

enhancement of symbiotic seed germination anddevelopment of an endangered terrestrial orchid(Platanthera integrilabia). Plant Science102: 133-138.

Zettler, L. W., J. A. Sunley, and T. Wilson Delaney.1999. Symbiotic micropropagation of the yellowfringeless-orchid, Platanthera integra, from theGreen Swamp, North Carolina. Assoc.Southeastern Biol. Bull. 46(2): 258 (abstract).

Lawrence W. Zettler, Ph.D., Department of Biology, The IllinoisCollege, 1101 West College Avenue, Jacksonville, Illinois62650-2299 USA. Dr. Zettler teaches botany andecology at The Illinois College and directsundergraduate student research in collaboration with


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The Morton Arboretum in Lisle, IL where he serves asa Research Associate. E-mail: [email protected]

Fig. 1. The attractive inflorescences of our nativeorchids like Platanthera integras render these plants easytargets for collectors, despite the fact that many areprotected by law and rarely survive transplantation.Photo courtesy of Paul Martin Brown.

Fig. 2. Inflorescences of the eastern prairie fringedorchid, Platanthera leucophaea --a species threatened withextinction. Most of the remaining populations contain

fewer than 50 plants. Photo courtesy of Marlin L.Bowles.


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THE NATIVE ORCHIDS OF

SOUTHERN FLORIDA

Roger L. Hammer

My interests in the native orchids of southernFlorida began when Carlyle Luers monumental work,The Native Orchids of Florida, was published in 1972. Ithas taken me over twenty years to track down andphotograph 79 species of orchids in Florida, includingtwo species new to the flora of North America. Thisorchid journey has taken me from the mysteriousOkeefenokee Swamp that straddles the Florida-Georgiaborder to Big Pine Key in the lower Florida Keys.Much of my time, however, was concentrated in CollierCountys Fakahatchee Swamp, where 46 of Floridasnative orchids occur. Each trip took me deeper into theswamp until finally in 1975 I decided to walk theswamps entire 18-mile length, sleeping in a jungle

hammock suspended above the swamp water. Fivedays later I struggled up onto the road shoulder ofInterstate 75 and had to hitchhike back to my

Volkswagen van parked along W. J. Janes MemorialScenic Drive that bisects a portion of the swamp. After

wading in a swamp for five days, offers of rides werenot soon coming and I couldnt be choosy when a truckfull of chickens heading for Everglades City stopped to


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pick me up. I sat on the back of the truck with cagesfull of white, squawking chickens and when the driverdropped me off at the entrance to Janes Drive, I walkedthe five miles back to my van, sipping rum andreminiscing about the thirty species of orchids that Ihad seen over the previous five days.

My talk and slide presentation on the nativeorchids of southern Florida for the North AmericanNative Orchid Alliance Conference will cover many ofthe native and naturalized orchids found in the southernhalf of the state.

Three birds orchid, Triphora trianthophora, occurs

from lower central Florida northward. While not truly a'South Florida' species, it is included here on the basisthat this conference is being held at the University ofSouth Florida, which technically lies in central Floridaand within the range of this orchid. Triphoratrianthophora can be quite common in the rich, moisthumus of hardwood forests where it grows as asaprophyte in association with a fungus. Look for itaround the springs of central and north Florida. A closerelative, least-flowered triphora, Triphora gentianoides, is

much different in its habitat preferences. It occurs mostcommonly as a colonial weed in the cultivated yards inthe Kendall-South Miami area of Miami-Dade County.It is spreading in Florida, however, perhaps in sod, andhas been recently found in southwest Florida.

The common grass-pink, Calopogon tuberosus, is acommon species throughout the eastern U.S. Flowers


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range from deep rose-pink, to pale pink, to white, andin the Everglades its flowers can be easily seenprotruding above prairie grasses in March and April.

The plants seen in southern Florida are much largerthan those found farther north and have been referredto as varietysimpsoniiby some authors.

Oblong-leaved vanilla, Vanilla phaeantha is a vining species that has a tendency to send zigzaggingstems high up trees in the Fakahatchee Swamp. Itappears to be restricted to Collier County in Florida butis also found throughout the West Indies. Large, greenflowers are produced in May, June, and July. Its muchmore familiar relative, common vanilla, V. mexicana,

more widely known as V. planifolia, is naturalized insouthern Florida but is believed to have beenintroduced during pre-Columbian times. This is the

vanilla of commerce and it is found as a wild plant inFlorida in Miami-Dade and Collier counties. Green,ephemeral flowers occur in April and May in Florida.

Yet another species, theworm-vine, V. barbellata, is oneof our showiest native orchids. The plant itself isnothing more than stout, fleshy, green or orange,leafless stems, that twine around amongst shrubs in

coastal mangrove-buttonwood associations. In Juneand July, large, very fragrant flowers appear. Theflowers sport green sepals and petals with a white lipfringed with rosy-red. As showy as the blossoms are,few people have had the pleasure of marveling at theirbeauty because they appear at the height of mosquitoseason. If you have ever been in the coastal mangrovesof southern Florida in June and July then you will know


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that in order to talk to someone, you have to throw arock through the mosquitoes and yell through the hole!

Mrs. Brittons shadow witch, Ponthieva brittoniae,easily ranks as one of our rarest native orchids. I firsthad the pleasure of finding a small colony of floweringplants on Long Pine Key in Everglades National Park in1979. Then I had the profound pleasure of showing theplants to Dr. Donovan Correll, who authored thecherished book, The Native Orchids of North America in1950. Dr. Correll had never seen this species in the wildand referred to it as P. racemosavar. brittonae. He lateragreed that it deserved species status. I also was able toshow the flowering plants to two other botanist friends,

George Avery and Chuck McCartney, and since thenDr. Correll and George Avery have passed away.Chuck McCartney and I, however, have made almostyearly excursions into the same area in hope of findingthe species again but all to no avail. The original colony

was lost to a road grader that slightly widened the roadright where the orchids occurred, wiped out in anational park by heavy equipment. It is not known ifthis plant still occurs in Florida but a recent find incentral Florida may well prove to be this elusive species.

A real harbinger of spring in southern Florida isthe spring ladies-tresses, Spiranthes vernalis, whichflowers as early as February and usually disappearssometime in April. It is exceptionally common alongmowed road swales and in open prairies of theEverglades. It is replaced in the same habitat by thelace-lipped ladies'-tresses, S. laciniata, in June and


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July. Both species are wide-ranging throughout Floridaand their white, usually spiraling, flowers held on frailgreen stems can even be seen from your automobile

while travelling along roadseven Floridas Turnpike.A much rarer species, the southern ladies'-tresses, S.torta, makes its appearance in June in Miami-DadeCounty, and is currently known from just a fewlocations, including Long Pine Key in EvergladesNational Park and in the Key Deer Refuge on Big PineKey. The fragrant ladies'-tresses, Spiranthes odorata, isanother white-flowered species, and it prefers wet soils,often sending its spikes of fragrant flowers right up outof standing water. It is generally a fall-flowering speciesin the Everglades.

Deep in the shady understory of tropicalhardwood forests of Miami-Dade County are occasionalpopulations of the speckled ladies'-tresses, Cyclopogoncranichoides. This species flowers in March, and theinsignificant greenish-brown flowers are difficult to findin the dappled light of the forest. The rosette ofglistening leaves make up for what the flowers lack inbeauty, but if the flowers are viewed through ahandlens, as Dr. Luer suggests, they are indeed quite

attractive. Paul Martin Brown reports finding this plantas far north as Ocala in Florida (and formerly in

Alachua County). Thetall neottia, Cyclopogon elatuseluded me for a number of years until a botanist friend,George Gann, found a few plants in a secludedhardwood forest in southern Miami-Dade County in1975. One plant flowered to confirm its identity andthe species has not been seen there, or anywhere else in


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Florida for that matter, since. Prior to HurricaneAndrew in 1992 a few suspicious plants were found in ahammock within Everglades National Park but I havenot been able to relocate them since the storm. Theplants looked like they likely could have been C. elatus.

The scarlet ladies'-tresses, Sacoila lanceolatavar.lanceolata is not at all shy. Husky spikes topped withorange-red flowers adorn Floridas roadsides from Aprilinto July each year, and large colonies can even befound along Floridas Turnpike. Simply driving alongroadways through Hendry County in May will usually berewarded by a view of this striking orchid. Occasionalgreen-flowered plants can also be seen, although there is

some debate regarding the taxonomy of the green-flowered form. Luer treated it as a separate variety, andreferred to it as Spiranthes lanceolatavar. luteoalba andcurrently it is known as forma albidaviridis.. Others feelit may be a distinct species, although it is always foundin or around typical red-flowered plants. The orange-red and green-flowered plants are both leafless duringanthesis, but deep in the Fakahatchee Swamp is a darkred-flowered variety that retains its leaves duringanthesis. It is currently referred to as Sacoila lanceolata

var. paludicola. Its natural historic range is theFakahatchee Swamp in Collier County and is regardedas our only Florida endemic orchid. But orchidaficionados have introduced it to both Miami-Dade andBroward counties where populations still exist today.

One may never think to look for floweringorchids during winter but a real show stopper blooms


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through Christmas and New Year in southern Floridaeach year. The spurred neottia, Eltroplectris calcarata,seems to be restricted to Miami-Dade County, althoughit had been previously known from Highlands Countyas well. The Highlands Hammock population isbelieved to have been extirpated by wild pigs. Wild pigsare a distinct threat throughout Florida to wildterrestrial orchid populations. Eltroplectris calcarata is anattractive species with snow-white flowers that resemblebirds in flight.

One of the first non-native species to show up inFlorida abetted by man is the lawn orchid, Zeuxinestrateumatica. This Asian species reputedly arrived in

centipede grass seed shipped from China in the early1930s. It was first reported from Indian River Countyin 1936 and, from that date, spread rapidly throughoutFlorida, often appearing as a weed in lawns, flower pots,and greenhouses. The tightly-clustered white flowersare produced principally in December and January.

Theyoung-palm orchid, Tropidia polystachya, wasfirst discovered in Brickell Hammock in Miami-DadeCounty in 1897 but by the 1930s much of Brickell

Hammock had been razed to make room for lavish bay-front homes. Tropidia polystachya was reduced to fewerthan 50 plants isolated in a small remnant of BrickellHammock close to Biscayne Bay. Over the years thepopulation dwindled and in the 1970s the City of Miamiplaced a nature trail directly through the largest colonyof orchids, further reducing the known population toseveral dozen plants. Hurricane Andrew caused


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considerable damage to the small hammock andhomeless people quickly moved in, chopping downtrees to form makeshift shelters. The constant foottraffic has now reduced the population to possibly onlythree plants. The small clusters of white flowers areproduced principally in October. Without some helpfrom concerned people, this unassuming little orchidcould be easily extirpated in Florida.

Michaux's orchid, Habenaria quinqueseta, on theother hand, is common in a wide range of habitatsthroughout Florida and can be common on roadshoulders, in open prairies of the Everglades, in shadedforests, and in swamps, such as the Fakahatchee Swamp

in Collier County. Spindly, white flowers are producedfrom January in southern Florida to August in thenorthern counties. A close relative, and easily one ofFloridas rarest orchids, is the false water-spiderorchid, Habenaria distans, known only from CollierCounty. It can easily be confused with H. quinquesetabut the flowers on H. distansare greenish in color andfewer flowers are produced atop the stem. Anothersimilar species is the water-spider orchid, Habenariarepens, which could qualify as one of the most common

terrestrial orchids of the Gulf states. It prefers rather wet habitats, including roadside ditches, cypressswamps, bogs, and wet meadows. Each flower spike ischockfull of small, spindly, greenish-yellow flowers thatare produced throughout the year.

There are moments that linger in our memorylong after they occurred, and finding crimson


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lepanthopsis, Lepanthopsis melananthawas one of thosemoments for me. I had spent five years searching forthis minuscule epiphyte in the deepest recesses of theFakahatchee Swamp in Collier County. Luer notes thatit was first discovered in 1931 and 'since that time, it hasbeen seen again on only relatively few occasions.' Hegoes on to state that 'not only is it diminutive andsecretive in its habitat but it is also quite uncommon inthe most inaccessible recesses of the swamp.' So, notonly was I faced with attempting to find a diminutiveand secretive orchid, but also a very rare one at that.Finally, in July 1976, accompanied by swarms ofmosquitoes in a remote, particularly deep slough next toa lake in the interior of the swamp, there was a single

plant in flower on a pop-ash tree. Since that date I havefound only four other specimens. Impossibly small,crimson flowers are held atop frail stems, and these canappear sporadically throughout the year.

The Florida butterfly orchid, Encyclia tampensis,was first discovered near Tampa in 1846 and still todayit is considered to be the most common epiphyticorchid in the state. Globally it is only known from theBahaman Archipelago and peninsular Florida, and here

it can be found in virtually every habitat, frominhospitable mangrove-buttonwood associations,hardwood forests, and cypress swamps, to even fire-prone areas such as pinelands and scrub. The plantssuperficially resemble a bunch of scallions, but in theheat and humidity of summer each year, branchedspikes produce small flowers with greenish-brownsepals and petals with a snow-white lip adorned in the


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center by pinkish-purple lines. There is considerablevariation in flower color, particularly in the amount ofpinkish-purple on the lip, and scent. Some smell likehoney, while others are more reminiscent of chocolate.

Prosthechea (Encyclia) boothianavar. erythronioides, theFlorida dollar orchid, is still relatively abundant inremote coastal forests of Miami-Dade and Monroecounties, although it was historically even more

widespread, especially in the Florida Keys. Wholesalecollecting has taken its toll and, unfortunately for theorchid (and the collector as well I suppose), plantsbrought into cultivation usually only survived a fewyears at best. The August and September flowering

season makes admiring and photographing this orchid apainful experience due to the intolerable swarms ofsaltmarsh mosquitoes that typify its habitat. Bloomspikes are adorned by interesting flowers with agreenish-brown coloration mottled with reddish-brownblotches.

The Florida clamshell orchid, Prosthechea(Encyclia) cochleatavar. triandra, is a well-known orchid inthe nursery trade, and well known to native orchid

enthusiasts as well. Over-collecting has taken its toll onnative populations but it is still abundant in swampyforests of southern Florida, mostly in EvergladesNational Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, and theFakahatchee Swamp. Historically it was a commonlyencountered species in the hammocks of Miami-DadeCounty and was reported by John Kunkel Small asbeing exceptionally prolific in Matheson Hammock.


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This was an interesting historical account by J. K. Smallbecause not a single specimen of this orchid occurs inMatheson Hammock today. A purplish lip is held atopyellow sepals and petals, and flowers appear mostly infall, winter, and spring. Floridas populations have threeanthers and are self-pollinating.

In the hardwood forests and swamps of southernFlorida is one of our outstanding reed-typeepidendrums, Epidendrum nocturnum, commonly knownas the night-scented orchid. Spindly, but attractiveflowers are produced periodically from July toDecember. The sepals and petals are yellow with a

white, three-lobed lip. The center lobe is long and

narrow, while the two side lobes are rounded and wing-like. A pungent odor, reminiscent of Vicks Vaporub,permeates the air around the flowers and attracts sphinxmoths as pollinators.

Found in piney woods and cypress swamps ofsouthern Florida is the pine-pink, Bletia purpurea. Thisterrestrial species can be rather abundant in some areasbut habitat destruction has taken its toll over much ofits historic range. The plants look very similar to

seedling palms and are often overlooked. In winter andspring, bright pink flowers are held atop tall, wiry stems,and seed pods are freely produced because the Floridapopulations are all self-pollinating.

A rarity among Floridas orchids, and a speciesseen by very few individuals, is Carters orchid,Basiphyllaea corallicola. It is certainly nothing to write


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home about, although finding such a rare species isquite an accomplishment. Small, wiry stems emergefrom cracks in the limestone substrate, and these aretopped by insignificant flowers that never fully open.

The lip is pinkish-purple but a hand lens is required tofully appreciate the flowers. This species was firstdiscovered by Joel Jackson Carter, who was a guest of

Alvah Augustus Eaton and John Kunkel Small on anorchid-searching mission to Florida in 1903. Eaton hadbeen sent to Florida by Oakes Ames who was workingon the first fascicle of his treatment on orchids. Eaton

was so miffed that Carter made the discovery and nothim, that he wrote a letter to Ames explaining that heprobably would have found it had they not changed

their seating arrangements on the horse-drawn wagon.Regardless of who saw it first, it is only with incredibleluck that any of them noticed frail stems hiding amongthe other vegetation. Only a few other chancediscoveries have been made since the early 1900s, themost recent being about 50 plants found along the edgeof Addison Hammock at the Deering Estate at Cutler in1991 and a few flowering plants found on Big Pine Keythe same year. It has not been recognized since.

In contrast to Carters orchid is the large, robustcowhorn orchid, Cyrtopodium punctatum, which inhabitshardwood forests, riverine mangrove-buttonwoodforests, and cypress swamps of the southern tip ofmainland Florida. Although it was one of the mostsought-after orchids by collectors, healthy populationsstill survive in remote areas of southernmost Florida.

Very showy spikes of flowers are produced in March,


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April and May each year which, from a distance,resemble a swarm of bees hovering above the stoutpseudobulbs. Each flower is creamy-yellow, mottled

with rich, purplish-brown, and each flowering spike maybear 50 or more flowers. A plant with a dozen or morespikes in open flower is truly a sight to behold.

Sometime in the 1950s, a Brazilian orchid knownas Cyrtopodium paranaensewas brought into cultivation inFlorida and in just a few short years it had begun toescape cultivation. Today it is well established in at leastone pineland preserve in southwest Miami-DadeCounty where it survives frequent fires. It is a terrestrialspecies, forming clumps of pseudobulbs among native

pineland understory plants. In spring or early summer,erect spikes produce bright yellow flowers. This speciesis native to Brazil and was erroneously referred to asCyrtopodium andersoniiby Luer (1972).

Itwasnt until 1976 when Oeceoclades maculatawasfirst discovered in Florida and that discovery was inMatheson Hammock in Miami-Dade County. Sincethat time, this orchid has swept South Florida like astorm. It has successfully island-hopped through the

Florida Keys and has become established well intocentral Florida. The attractive two-tone green mottledleaves look superficially like Sansevieria, and the smallcreamy-brown flowers are adorned by a white lip withtwo parallel pink blotches. This species is native toboth Africa and South America and may have expandedits range northward as a result of global warming.Flowers are pollinated by rain and seed pods are readily


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produced. It prefers the shade of hardwood forests butalso invades tree orchards as well. It is quite ubiquitousand is probably in Florida to stay.

Two species ofMaxillariaare now known fromFlorida. The false butterfly orchid,Maxillaria crassifolia,

was first discovered in 1934 and is restricted to CollierCounty. It can be found growing epiphytically in themore remote watery sloughs of the FakahatcheeSwamp. It is quite scarce and to see one in flower iseven a bit disappointing. A single yellow flower isproduced at the base of the plant, and is usuallycompletely hidden by leaves that drop from the hosttree and collect on the orchids leaves. The flowers

often do not fully open either, adding further frustrationto orchid photographers. A second species wasdiscovered by the author in 1987 in a deep pop-ashslough in a seldom-visited area of the FakahatcheeSwamp. Several large colonies of the densely-floweredmaxillaria,Maxillaria parviflorawere found growing on asingle tree and a herbarium specimen was collected byDr. Carlyle Luer and deposited at Marie Selby BotanicalGarden. Half of the multi-trunked tree broke off oneyear and now it seems the other portion of the tree has

fallen too, so that may have wiped out this species inFlorida. Very small, clustered flowers are produced atthe base of the leading pseudobulb in September orOctober. Hopefully, other plants of this species lieundetected somewhere in the Fakahatchee. One canonly hope at this point.


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The spider orchid, Brassia caudata, is believed tobe extirpated in Florida. It was only first discovered in1915 and greedy collectors ravaged the few knownpopulations. A few plants were moved into EvergladesNational Park by Dr. Frank Craighead in an effort toprotect the species. The last known plant died in ahammock on Long Pine Key during the severe freeze of1977 that brought snow and 17 degree temperatures toMiami. Large, mottled, spindly, spider-like flowersemerge in May and June but very few persons have hadthe privilege to see this orchid in the wild in Florida.Our only hope may be that it will get reintroduced toFlorida from the tropics or that there is someundiscovered population tucked away in some hidden

spot in Everglades National Park.

The most spectacular orchid in Florida may very wellbe the mule-ear orchid, Oncidium undulatum. At least it

would get my vote. Huge leaves, which do indeed looklike a mules ear, may reach four feet long. Hugeclusters of these plants are truly a sight when seen in itsnative coastal habitat, even when not in flower. In May,if you can possibly stand walking the necessary mile ortwo to get through vining entanglements of barbwire

cactus, thickets of poisonous manchineel, Hippomanemancinella, sweltering heat, stifling humidity, and thedensest swarms of saltmarsh mosquitoes youve everexperienced, then you will be rewarded with one ofnatures most inspiring sights... flowering mule-earorchids. Flower spikes that sometimes reach five feet ormore tower above the huge leaves and each flower spikeproduces dozens of flowers. Each flower is a rich,


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golden mustard color, heavily blotched with deepreddish-brown, and the lip, sepals, and petals all haveundulating margins. The flowers resemble those ofmembers of the Malpighia Family,Malpighiaceae, and it isbelieved that they mimic these flowers to attractpollinators.

The leafless orchids in Florida are among naturesoddities. The leafless harrisella, Harrisella porrecta, isnothing more than a small mass of entangled, wiry rootsthat cling to small twigs of trees and shrubs. I havefound them on citrus trees in old abandoned groves ofcentral Florida, and on moss-covered stems oftallowwood, Ximenia americana, along tramroads in the

Fakahatchee Swamp. Very small green flowers areproduced in late summer and fall, followed by tinyseedpods.

The Fakahatchee Swamp is the place to find theother two leafless species as well. The ribbon or thick-spurred-orchis, Campylocentrum pachyrrhizum producesflattened roots with orange growing tips seekingnutrients from the host tree. In August, as many as ahalf-dozen flower spikes emerge from the center of the

plant, and these each produce two tight rows of smallpink-and-orange flowers. Fruit resemble miniaturestalks of bananas.

But if an orchid judge had to give a Best ofShow for Floridas native orchids, I would bedisappointed if the award went to any other species thanthe ghost orchid, Polyradicion lindenii. When in flower,


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the ghost orchid is truly a showstopper. A single (rarelydouble) flower emerges, principally in July, from thecenter of the plants roots that radiate outward likespokes on a wheel. The roots are flecked with whiteand have green growing tips. The flower is snow-whiteand is best described as looking like an albino frogleaping skyward. Perhaps Dr. Carlyle Luer said it best

when he wrote 'Should one be lucky enough to see aflower, all else will seem eclipsed. There, caughthovering in mid-air, will be a fantastic, fairy-like ghostfrozen in flight.'

Roger Hammer , 17360 Avocado Drive, Homestead, Florida 33030. E-mail:[email protected] is a well-recognized authority on the orchids of southern Florida and is

the author of numerous articles on the subject as well as the recipient ofseveral regional awards for his conservation and education efforts.


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A SPECIAL PLACE

The Slow Empiricist

Many people may not be aware of the existence ofa truly remarkable place that houses a collection offabulous glass flowers. Yes, I said glass flowers! Theydon't look like they are made of glass, however. Theylook like the real thing lying in their display cases. They

are the creation of two men, Leopold Blaschka and hisson, Rudolph. They had the fortunate situation ofbeing born into a family of artisans in the Bohemianglass blowing tradition. They also lived in the time

when science was influencing the creation of artisticwork. The result was that these gifted gentlemen wouldspend five decades from 1886 to 1916 making theseexquisite reproductions of the flora and the insectpollinators associated with them from an esotericmedium that one normally doesn't think of as being

scientifically oriented, namely, glass blowing.

The collection is housed at the Harvard Museumof Natural History in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It isopen to the public and you can easily spend severalhours enjoying the large collection. Adjoining themuseum on the same floor are exhibits of minerals to


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the right of the rooms housing the glass flowers andzoological specimens to the left of the flowers. Thereare also many other cultural exhibits in the building, soyou may want to plan to spend a day there if you havemore wide-ranging interests than just looking at plantforms and in particular, orchids.

The University has just acquired tools, glasssamples, lampworking bench and personal artifactsfrom the Blaschkas' studio near Dresden, Germany,

which add to a better understanding of the processesthat helped create the flowers. Leopold confessed in1889 that there was no secret apparatus that squeezedthe molten glass into the flower forms. It took having a

background of several generations in the business andthe talent and passion for the medium to produce theseexamples of the best in Bohemian scientific art glass.

The Blaschka family can be traced back to the15th century as levelers and glassmakers. Bohemiabecame known as world center for glasswork by the18th century. When Leopold and Rudolph entered thescene a fascination with natural history had swept overpeoples' imagination and occupied much speculation

and activity. The Blaschkas, quite naturally, becameabsorbed with these ideas and when the scientificcommunity asked them to create glass models of marinelife to use in college level studies, they began to develop

ways to reproduce the specimens in glass. Glass was amuch more permanent and satisfactory medium thanthe earlier examples made from wax and papier-mache'.

This eventually led into the area of flora. Professor


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George Lincoln Goodale, founder of the BotanicalMuseum at Harvard, wanted life-like examples of theplant kingdom for teaching botany.

The Harvard collection includes 847 species ofplant life, with over 1,000 models. Many of the modelsdepict members of the orchid family. Often thespecimens included enlarged segments, alongside theregular sized complete specimen, that showed inremarkable, accurate detail specific portions of theflower. Some had cut-away portions that showed theinner workings of the plant. Pollinators were oftenincluded with the specimens. All these enhancementsenabled students to get a clearer idea of the plant they

were studying.

To get more information about the collectionsuch as exhibition hours and cost o

september 1999 north american native orchid journal

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