AboutOrchids

Dave and I have been so fortunate to vacation in Hawaii over the years, but we’ve only been to Maui once. It was in 2005, before this old blog began. Maybe it’s a cliché to call it paradise, but it’s truly deserving of the title. These photos show a tiny fraction of the botanical wonders we saw. Sadly, unprecedented firestorms have devastated parts of the island, killing people, plants, and animals, destroying homes and businesses, and disrupting life for everyone there. There are many reputable charities helping Maui, and a few are listed at the end of this post. Please donate if you can.

Most of these old photos are from Kula Botanical Garden. A few others are from the Garden of Eden Arboretum, located on the famous Road to Hana. The last row of photos has two shots of rare Silversword plants from the summit of Haleakala Volcano. As far as I know, none of these areas have been damaged by the fires. The final photo, however, shows Lahaina’s beloved banyan tree. It covers a whole city block, with many massive trunks and enormous branches. This single tree feels like its own forest. While it was burned in the fire, it’s still standing, and scientists hope that it can survive and recover.

This disaster is stark proof, in case anybody still needs it, that climate change is affecting every corner of the world, even paradise. For now, officials are asking tourists to stay away so that resources can be used for ongoing local rescue efforts. If you can, please donate to help Maui recover.

• Maui Food Bank
• Maui Humane Society
• Hawaii Community Foundation
• Maui Hui Malama

In Turkey, Greece, and parts of the Middle East, salep is a beloved food. For thousands of years, the roots of local orchids have been used to make salep, which is turned into hot drinks, and also a type of thick ice cream. Almost two centuries ago, novelist Jane Austen described the delicious appeal of the drink, which was called salop in Britain: “Tea is great, coffee greater; chocolate, properly made, is for epicures; but these are thin and characterless compared with the salop swallowed in 1826.”

Sadly, salep’s increasing popularity is threatening the orchids, and the harvest of wild plants is unsustainable. Ophrys, Orchis, and Dactylorhiza orchids are dug up, and their tubers are boiled, dried, and crushed into powder. While a few farmers cultivate the plants, it’s mostly made from wild orchids. Scientists are working to conserve the species, but in the meantime, they’re asking people not to buy salep unless they’re certain that it’s been legally and sustainably harvested. Many who enjoy salep don’t realize that it’s derived from orchids. There’s hope that educating consumers about the ingredients will help to protect them.

Read more about salep in my previous posts:

• Orchids for Dessert
• The Cultural and Ecological Implications of the Salep Orchid Trade

Last weekend’s Orchids in the Park event was impressive as always. Even though it was smaller than San Francisco’s main winter expo, there was plenty to enjoy. For myself, having grown orchids for over three decades, it’s exciting to find something I’ve never seen before. The final photo in the third row shows a species which was new to me. That strange green bloom belongs to an extremely tall Madagascar native, Oeceoclades calcarata, which towered over all the other plants with a crowded flower spike. It was far too large for me to fit into my collection, but it left me in awe of immense variety of the orchid family. Check back soon for more from Orchids in the Park.

Among August’s shows, auctions, walks, and talks, I’ve listed the first orchid event I’ve ever found in Alaska, Gardening with Native Alaskan Orchids. It’s a workshop offered at Pratt Museum & Park in the small town of Homer, and it sounds like an amazing opportunity to learn about very hardy orchids.

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The San Francisco Orchid Society presents Orchids in the Park this Saturday and Sunday, July 29th-30th. The event happens at the SF County Fair Building, 1199 9th Avenue near Lincoln Way, in Golden Gate Park. In addition to amazing orchids, there will be great vendors, hands-on demos, expert growing advice, kids’ activities, and conservation info. You can buy tickets in advance for $10, which are good for admission on both days. The price at the door will be $10 each day. These photos from last year’s event are just a small taste of the wonders to expect. Don’t miss it!

When I said we had more photos from the Conservatory of Flowers, I wasn’t kidding. There are a lot of magnificent plants packed under that elegant metalwork and white glass. With all the lush greenery, it’s easy to miss some of the orchids, especially the miniatures. To take it in, it’s best to go slowly and stroll along the paths. Of course, many of the flowers jump out with large blooms, bright colors, and elaborate shapes.

The Conservatory houses plenty of tropical plants in addition to orchids. Hibiscus, bromeliads, ferns, and carnivorous pitcher plants abound. It’s a little bit of the tropics in the middle of San Francisco.

Like many orchids, the Long Spurred Angraecum faces an uncertain future. Angraecum longicalcar is one of Madagascar’s beautiful, fascinating, and highly endangered orchids. Climate change, habitat destruction, and poaching of wild plants are terrible threats. In addition, its pollinator may be extinct. While many plants use lots of different pollinators, orchids often specialize for a single bug or bird species. If that species disappears, the orchid cannot effectively reproduce. Like its close relative Darwin’s Orchid, Angraecum longicalcar has long nectar spurs to attract a moth with a very long tongue. Its night-fragrant green and white flowers resemble strange sea creatures with lengthy tails.

Fortunately, the Long Spurred Angraecum is in cultivation, where it may be pollinated by helpful humans, like those at the Smithsonian Gardens Orchid Collection. It also can grow keikis, or baby plants, to reproduce. Even with these safeguards, it would be a horrible tragedy for this orchid to go extinct in the wild.

It only takes one look at this orchid to understand why it’s nicknamed the King of the Masdevallias, and is considered a national treasure of Peru. I bought this plant at last winter’s Pacific Orchid Expo, and was thrilled when it recently opened its first bloom, a brilliant orange flower with tiny purple hairs which glisten in the sun. My photos don’t do it justice.

Masdevallia veitchiana is native to the high Andes of Peru, including the cloud forests of Machu Picchu. It’s called gallo-gallo in Spanish, and waqanki in Quechua. The Incas cultivated this species, and venerated it in a legend. I’ve read several versions of the story, which revolves around an Incan princess who fell in love with a soldier. Her father forbid her to marry him, and these flowers grew where her tears fell. In Quechua, waqanki means “you will cry.”

The King of the Masdevallias lives up to 13,000 feet (4000 m) in the Andes. In its native habitat, it can handle warm days, but wants a big temperature drop at night, often swinging from 40°F to 80°F (4.4°C to 26.7°C) daily. Unlike other Masdevallias, it prefers full morning sun. Mine is growing outdoors with sun-loving Cymbidiums, Dendrobiums, and Epidendrums, rather than with its shade-loving pleurothallid cousins. Regular watering, constant high humidity, and good air flow are essential. With luck, I can keep my plant happy, and coax more blooms from this legendary orchid.

Australia and New Zealand host plenty of orchid shows this month, but there are also events above the equator. For example, Orchids in the Park is the smaller of San Francisco’s two annual shows, and well worth a visit to Golden Gate Park.

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Florida’s rare and fascinating Ghost Orchid features in a best-selling book and an Oscar-winning movie starring Meryl Streep and Nicolas Cage. But somehow it’s still not listed as an official endangered species in the USA. A lawsuit by three conservation groups aims to fix that. George Gann, executive director of the Institute for Regional Conservation, explained:

We are highly disappointed that we must resort to a lawsuit to get the ghost orchid the legal protection imperative for its survival. However, we cannot let bureaucratic inertia and inadequate funding for the Endangered Species Act lead to the extinction of this amazing icon of the Greater Everglades — that would be a senseless and unnecessary tragedy.

It’s a calamity for anything to go extinct, but especially for a beloved, emblematic species like the Ghost Orchid. Fortunately, it’s been brought into cultivation, and is available for legal sale. Unfortunately, that hasn’t stopped illegal poachers who rip plants from the wild. The constant dangers of habitat destruction, pollution, and climate change are escalating, compounded by oil drilling in the Everglades, and attempts to expand harmful off-road vehicle access. Only about 1500 plants remain in the wild, and local laws are insufficient to protect them. The conservation organizations filing the lawsuit are the Institute for Regional Conservation, the Center for Biological Diversity, and the National Parks Conservation Association. The Ghost Orchid’s future is riding on it.