AboutOrchids

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.

The warm and sunny colors of these Coral Roots Orchids are a perfect way to welcome the first day of summer. Coral Roots, or Corallorhizas, are strange, leafless orchids. They live underground except when they flower. With no chlorophyll, they instead take nourishment from fungi in the soil. The wild orchids in these photos are blooming in the Rockies, at almost 7900 feet (2408 m) in elevation, near Durango in southwest Colorado.

I believe the reddish-purple plants in the first row of photos are the Spotted Coral Root, Corallorhiza maculata. It’s native to much of the USA, Canada, Mexico, and Guatemala. The yellow and white flowers in the rest of the pictures are probably another color form of the Spotted Coral Root. They may also be the Early Coral Root, Corallorhiza trifida. No matter which species they are, these unusual blooms popping out of the forest floor are great signs of a healthy environment, and a welcome harbinger of summer.

Photos in this post courtesy of Brenda Hogue. See more Coral Roots in these previous posts:

• Native Colorado Orchids
• More Native Colorado Orchids
• A Weird Coralroot Orchid Grows in Austin

San Francisco’s Conservatory of Flowers is one of the many gems in Golden Gate Park. I’ve blogged about our past visits, but it had been a few years since we were there. Last week, Dave and I remedied that, and we were again in awe of their astounding collection. The glasshouse is magnificent on the outside, and packed with tropical plants inside. Orchids abound. Like a rainforest, orchids are at every level: in pots on the floor, hanging from mounts, and suspended from above. The more we looked, the more fascinating plants we found.

Orchid varieties in the historic glasshouse range from tiny pleurothallids to an enormous Sobralia which towers over visitors. I really enjoyed the variety, especially the rare and rarely-seen species. The non-orchids are pretty spectacular, too. A few are shown in the final two rows of pictures below, including the new growth on a Titan Arum, or Corpse Flower, in the last photo. For weeks, people have been wondering whether it’s a leaf or a flower. Yesterday, the Conservatory announced that they can see the signs that it will be a flower. (Sorry, Instagram will not let that link work unless you’re logged in.) In a couple weeks, it will bloom as one of the largest and stinkiest flowers in the plant world. Fortunately, it didn’t stink when we were there.

If you’re in San Francisco, the magical Conservatory of Flowers is always worth a visit. Check out photos from our past visits below.

• Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park
• And More from the Conservatory of Flowers
• Orchids in the Conservatory of Flowers
• Conservatory of Flowers
• Conservatory of Flowers redux
• Conservatory of Flowers
• More from the Conservatory of Flowers