(cont)

 
A systematic division (sub-family, tribe, sub-tribe, alliances, groups and section - when concerned) of the Brazilian Orchidaceae is presented in 191 genera and 2300 species, with systematic illustrations and watercolors. The information given covered the states, neighbor countries and provinces where they occur as well the type of vegetative growth (epiphyte, terrestrial) and the characteristics of the group, alliance or section.

 
The habitats are divided into four "ecological provinces of orchids" or climatic regions as explained in the first volume.

The first orchids province aggregates the most part of orchids with more or less 60% of the existing genera and species.
The climate is intermediate (or temperate) and in Brazil, it comprehends Serra do Mar, in Andes, the medium zone, in Asia, the foothills the Himalayas, mountains of Malaya and Indonesia.
It is situated in high humid atmospheric regions.
In heat time, those environments are soaked during the night by the rain and by the fog (condensation of the hot and humid air which come from the plains when meets the cold air of high regions) and quickly dried with the first sun rayons with the breeze and the dried air.
During the winter when hardly rains, it is the drought with just a little fog during the dawn.

The second orchids province includes the hot lowlands of South American coast, Amazon basins, Asia and Africa. It has a hot, humid tropical climate, which depends on the proximity of the sea , the swamp or the wood to assure the humid.
During the rainy season, hot and humid days with storms alternate with hot and dried days, when temperature never drops even the night .

 
The third orchids province is found in the central plateau (planalto central), typical region of cerrado (an extensive tract of waste land composed of stunted twisted trees - savannas and prairies)
Situated in the interior of the continents where there is no influence of the maritime winds, in altitude varying from 500 to 1000m.
There are few trees and isolated elevations in the wood, called Chapadas (tableland).
Many of the orchids coming from this province are terrestrial.
The most interesting characteristic of those places is the diary violent alternation of temperature.
The temperature falls 35º C from day to night.
In Brazil, we have the plateau in the states of Minas Gerais, Goiás and Mato Grosso.

 
And, finally, the coldest regions as Siberia, China, Japan, high Himalayas, great part of Europe, North American, Patagonia and the most high regions of Andes cordillera form the fourth orchid province.
In Brazil, Pabst just considered the peaks of the "Serra do Mar" and in "Minas Gerais", as fourth province.

 

Besides, the book give other precious information to understand the occurrences of those plants in our country.
In the introduction of the first volume, Pabst also talked about how natural orchids live in Brazil, discoursing on their adaptation to the environment and their capacity to survival like Acacallis cyanea and Galeandra devoniana which live under water for weeks during the rainy period.
He talked about the capacity of absorbing humidity and the importance of the mist. He considered on the probable sequence of evolution of those plants and the the migratory tracks of orchids in Brazil and in South America. He outlined the history of orchids in Brazil, the first voyages, the researchers and the collectors. The scientific study and the evolution of the knowledge. He also wrote against the extermination of the orchids in their habitats.
Very useful, in the end of each volume, there is a list of most known synonyms.

 

Make a mistake who thinks that this book has only scientific interest, discoursing meticulously about native environment, give precious tips about cultivation, about humidity, air movement, lateral and overhead light, the ideal greenhouse and etc. He even talked about the three forms of growth (aerial orchids, epiphytes and rock living orchids). He also told us about micro-orchids, cultivation on tree fern trunks, cultivation on live trees, multiplication in nature, germination on rocks. The indication of the province helps the grower to chooses the most adequate plant to his environment. Although we know that, in orchid cultivation, nothing is definitive because depending on the factors, we can cultivate orchids in different conditions of the natural habits. It is just a starting point.

Many other Brazilian and foreign researchers gave us important works to improve our knowledge about our orchids, published in magazines and books. Meticulous surveys and revision have been done concerning different genera but it will be too extensive talking every one. We intend to include them in our projects, as we have already done with Francisco Miranda, Lou Menezes and Carlos Eduardo de Britto Pereira (See Orchid News nºs 6, 7 e 10)

   
  Species he described
 
Pabst restudied many different species, transferred some to other genera. However the list of the species he described is very extended (alone or with other researchers) among them :
   
  Barbosella trilobata,
  Brachionidium dungsii Brachionidium dungsii
  Brachystelle hatschbachii,
  Brachystelle hoehnei,
  Brassavola fasciculata,
  Brassocattleya Araujoi (with Mello)
  Bulbophyllum longipetalum,
Bulbophyllum melloi,
Capanemia ensata,
Capanemia riograndensis,
Capanemia spathuliglossa,
Catasetum blackii,
  Catasetum meeae,
  Catasetum ornithoides,
Catasetum rohrii,
Catasetum rondonense,
Catasetum stenoglossum,
 

Catasetum X issanensis
(híbrido natural de
Catasetum discolor

X
Catasetum longifolium

Cattleya araguaiensis,
Cattleya silvana (species dubia)  
Cattleya X kaustkyi (with Dungs, natural hybrid between C. harrisoniana and C. warneri)  
Cattleya X duvenii (natural hybrid between C. guttata and C. harrisoniana),
 
Cirrhaea seidelii,
Cleistes itatiaiae,
Cleistes ramboi,
Cleistes strangii,

Cleistes uliginosa,
Cranichis nudilabia,
Cryptarrhena ghillanyi,
Cyclopogon stenoglossus,
Encyclia alogoensis
(nowadays Anechillium alogensis),
Cyrtopodium edmundoi
(concerning Cyrtopodium , see Orchid News nº 7, interview with Lou Menezes),
Dichaea rodriguesii,

Encyclia campos-portoi,
Encyclia cardimii,
Encyclia dutrai,
Encyclia duveniii,
Encyclia ghillanyi,
Encyclia kautskyi,
Encyclia moojenii,
Encyclia seidelii,
Encyclia xerophytica,
  Epidendrum addae,
  Epidendrum cryptoglossum,
Epidendrum ecostatum,
Epidendrum kautskyi,
Epidendrum warasii,
Erythrodes brachyplectron,
Erythrodes bruxelii,
Erythrodes fissirostris,
Habenaria drenopetala,
Habenaria heringeri
,
Habenaria hatschbachii,
Habenaria heringeri,
Habenaria lancipetala,
Habenaria rostrata,
Koellensteinia altissima,
Lankesterella saléhi
Lepanthes brasiliensis,
Masdevallia kautskyi,
Masdevallia richteri,
Maxillaria seidelii,
  Miltonia kayasimae
(nowadays Annaeliesia kayasimae)
 
Miltonidium X salvadoi (with Mello, natural hybrid between Miltonia and Oncidium)
  Mormodes cucumerina,
Mormodes vernixioidea,
Octomeria amazonica,
Octomeria cariocana,
Octomeria crassilabia,
Octomeria flabellifera,
Octomeria reitzii,
Octomeria rohrii,
Octomeria schultesii,
Octomeria setigera,
Odontorrynchus ghillany,
 
 
Oncidium X Colnagoi
(Natural hybrid between Oncidium zappii X O. gardneri var. caloglossum)
(Concerning this hybrid, see Orchid News nº 10, interview with Carlos Eduardo de Britto Pereira and also see the topic GENERA: Oncidium, considerations about the genus Oncidium
  Oncidium edmundoi,
Oncidium kaustkyi,
Oncidium leinigii,
Oncidium
X scullyi (Natural hybrid between Oncidium curtum and O. gravesianum)
  Oncidium truncatum
  Oncidium zappii
  Oncidium welteri,
Orleanesia richteri,
Phymatidium vogelii,
Platystelle edmundoi,
Pleurothallis bacillaris,
Pleurothallis colorata,
Pleurothallis cordilabia,
Pleurothallis curti-bradei,
Pleurothallis dutrai,
Pleurothallis egleri,
Pleurothallis eugenii,
Pleurothallis farinosa,
Pleurothallis fluminense,
Pleurothallis garayi
(with Garay),
Pleurothallis ghillanyi,
Pleurothallis githaginea,
Pleurothallis gomesii-ferreirae,
Pleurothallis gonzalezii,
Pleurothallis graveolens,
Pleurothallis karlii,
Pleurothallis kautskyi,
Pleurothallis magalhaesii,
Pleurothallis malmeana,
Pleurothallis rudolfii,
Pleurothallis seidelii,
Pleurothallis stenoglossa,
Pleurothallis timeropetala,
Pleurothallis wanderbildtiana,
Pleurothallis welteri,
Pseudolaelia cipoensis,
Pseudolaelia geraienses,
Pseudolaelia irwiniana,
Rodrigueziella petropolitana,
Sarcoglottis amazonica,
Sarcoglottis heringeri,
Scaphyglottis sickii,
 
  Scuticaria irwiniana
  Scuticaria itirapinensis  
 
Scuticaria kautskyi
  Sobralia margaritae  
  Sophronitis pygmaea
  Stellis leinigii,
Stenorrhynchus lutzii,
Triphora heringeri,
Vanilla denticulata,
Vanilla dungsii
,
Zygopetalum ghillanyi,
Zygopetalum reginae,

 
 
It is curious observing the great number of Laelia species described by Pabst, during the XX century
taking into consideration that Minas Gerais is one of the most visited state by former researchers
in XIX Century:
  Laelia angereri (1975)
Laelia blumenscheinii
(1975)
 
  Laelia bradei (1973)
  Laelia cardimii (with Mello 1978)  
  Laelia endsfeldzii (1975)
 
Laelia fidelensis (1967), although discovered in l940 and declared by Hoehne as a new species, it remained long time without being described. Pabst just got it in l966)
  Laelia gardneri (1975)  
  Laelia ghillanyi (1973)
  Laelia gracilis(1979),
Laelia hispidula
(with Mello 1978),
Laelia itambana
(1973), Laelia kautskyana (1974),
Laelia kettieana
(1974), Laelia liliputana (1973),
Laelia mantiquierae
(1975),
macrobulbosa,
Laelia pfisteri
(com Senghas, 1978),
Laelia reginae
(1975),

and the natural hybrids:

Laelia
X caetensis (L.flava X L. crispata),
Laelia
X carassana (L.mantiqueirae X L.lucasiana),
Laelia
X cipoensis (L.ghillany X L. crispata),
Laelia
X gerhardt-santosi (L.harpophylla X L. kautskyana),
Laelia
X espiritosantense (L.pumila X L. xanthina).

There are a few intergeneric natural hybrids:

Laelicattleya lambari
(L.flava X C. lodigesii),
Laelicattleya rigbyana
(C. schilleriana X L.pumila).
 
(Note: Concerning the studies about the genus Laelia see Orchid News nº 6, with the researcher Francisco Miranda where he talks about the revision the did on the genus Laelia after a long period of studies).
 


More than 200 works published

There are more than 200 works published by Guido Pabst. To know the list, see the Bradea bulletin Vol. III, nº 10, September 19th l980

 
back to the summarynext