AboutOrchids

This summer’s Orchids in the Park event filled Golden Gate Park with truly extraordinary flowers. My first post simply scratched the surface. Here are more photos, featuring the species, the hybrids, the latest trends, and the classics. It’s tough to pick favorites, but since I’ve grown Masdevallia chaparensis at home for many years, it’s already a favorite. The yellow flower throat illuminates those purple-leopard spots from within. It’s just one of the magical things that orchids do.

From Tasmania to Queeensland, Australians are celebrating orchids this month. There are over 60 events listed below for Australia, and eight in New Zealand, too. North and South America, Europe, and Asia are in there, also, with big shows in Tokyo, Tampa, Bogotá, and Lisbon.

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In Defense of Plants has a great podcast about orchid diversity with Dr. Tatiana Arias, who is a botanist at Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Florida. Arias is trying to understand why orchids are so diverse, and what drives their evolution. Orchids boast incredible variety among 30,000 species worldwide. She’s particularly interested in her home country, Colombia, which has over 4200 native species. Her research focuses on Pleurothallids, such as Lepanthes and Draculas, and requires collaboration with other scientists, hobbyists, farmers, and even former guerrillas. Some basic questions, like defining what a species is, can be challenging. With legal permits, Arias collects leaves and flowers to make dried herbarium specimens, takes pictures, and does genetic analyses. She’s always conscious of how endangered many of these orchids are, and works to conserve them. Learn more at the Arias Lab.

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.