Species Orchidacearum is a free, online, serial publication, dedicated to tropical orchids. Peer-reviewed botanical works fill the five volumes already published, all highlighting Colombian orchids. Each volume details about a dozen species with scientific descriptions, photos, and maps. Check out the varieties covered so far. The goal of these publications is to promote universal access to this info.
Florida’s native Cigar Orchids have been vanishing for decades. Habitat destruction and overcollection of wild plants have decimated their numbers and endangered them, even in Big Cypress National Preserve. Fortunately, scientists like conservation ecologist Hong Liu are working to save them. She’s trying to find Cigar Orchids, or Cyrtopodium punctatum, to figure out how to protect them. It’s not easy to find rare plants in the 729,000 acre (295,000 hectare) preserve, even with a swamp buggy and the help of orchid lovers on social media. “If we see one plant, that’s a good day,” Liu said. “The majority of the searches, we see one or two. That’s the norm. That’s how sparse this population is over the huge size of Big Cypress.” After analyzing their data and presenting it to the park service, they plan to continue their work to conserve these breathtaking orchids.
Read more about this conservation work at NationalParksTraveler.org.
After a sunny spring, the summer fog has arrived, and it’s keeping our plants happy. Start the garden tour with the orchids in the first row of photos: a brilliant yellow and orange Prosthechea, a white and orange Coelogyne, and a hot pink Masdevallia.
There’s one more orchid, the white blooms in the first photo in the second row. They’re from my very reliable Sarcochilus. It didn’t have many flower spikes this year, probably because I neglected to repot it last year. It’s definitely next on my repotting list. In the next picture, our Aristea isn’t an orchid, but its tall spikes carry dazzling blue blossoms.. One of our new native plants, a Coastal Bush Lupine, is already attracting bumblebees to its yellow flowers.
The final row of photos includes spectacular cactus flowers, and a happy fuchsia. They’re all giving our garden a colorful start to summer.
Australia and New Zealand have busy schedules this month, but there are events above the equator, too, including San Francisco’s Orchids in the Park, July 30-31. Stay safe with vaccinations and masks at indoor events.
Did you know that birds can’t smell sweet scents, so orchids instead use bright reds, oranges, yellows, or purples to attract them? The brilliant minds of Smithsonian Gardens have made a great resource about orchid pollination. The charming webpage explains how birds, moths, butterflies, bees, wasps, and flies fertilize flowers. It also includes beautiful photos, info about orchid basics, and an interactive map showing species diversity around the world.
Celebrate today’s summer solstice with more photos from our recent visit to San Francisco Botanical Garden. I already blogged about three of the most amazing plants we saw, but of course, the rest of the gardens are stunning, too. There were California natives, like a gorgeous California Azalea, and giant Coast Redwood Trees. South African Protea and Leucospermum flowers resembled Dr. Seuss creations, as did the pointy, South American Monkey Puzzle Trees. A young leaf, which looks like an alien hand, emerged from an enormous Gunnera.
Here in the San Francisco Bay Area, we’re starting summer with a heat wave. Even on the coast, where fog and ocean breezes usually moderate the temperature, we were above 86°F (30°C) before noon this morning. Hello summer.
The Rainforest Trust and the Orchid Conservation Alliance (OCA) are working hard to save endangered orchids. Both groups are trying to raise emergency funds to purchase properties next to Ecuador’s Dracula Reserve. New mining activities are destroying nearby rainforests and threatening the entire area, which is a biodiversity hotspot. This Valley of Orchids is home to hundreds of orchid species, and there are frequently more discoveries. Nearby property owners want to sell their land to these conservation groups, rather than the miners, but time is of the essence. Please donate to the Rainforest Trust and the OCA if you can. Donations are tax-deductible as allowed by law. A large donation to the OCA allows the donor to pick a name for a newly-identified orchid.
San Francisco Botanical Garden, also known as Strybing Arboretum, is full of wonders. Whenever we go, Dave and I always expect to enjoy lush growth and plentiful blooms. But on a recent visit, it seems the gardens went above and beyond their usual magic. There weren’t any orchids, but we were astounded by some stunning plants. Three of them are highlighted here. The first row of photos above shows the amazing metallic-blue flowers of the Sapphire Tower, or Chilean Rock Bromeliad, Puya alpestris. The tall, colorful spikes held the flowers right in front of us, at perfect photographing height. I’ve seen Puya blooms before, such as this one from the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley, but these were much more striking.
In the second row, there are bizarre blooms from a Monkey’s Hand Tree. The species is native to Guatemala and southern Mexico. This specimen grows arched over a pathway in Strybing’s Succulent Garden. I’d never seen the tree in bloom before. The large, red flowers are certainly fascinating and weird.
The third row of photos can’t compare in color to the first two, but it shows quite an oddity: a very rare albino redwood. Few of these mutants are known to exist, but there’s one in Strybing’s Redwood Grove. The white leaves can’t photosynthesize, so they must grow attached to a parent tree with green needles. These were growing as small suckers at the base of a large tree. Unfortunately, I suspect that some visitors were plucking them. It’s possible that these ghostly plants help their parent plant to filter toxic heavy metals. They’re just a few of San Francisco Botanical Garden’s marvels.
Orchid thieves have been busy in the UK, destroying native species in the process. Burnt-tip Orchids and Late Spider Orchids are both rare and endangered in England. Dozens of them have gone missing. Orchid experts believe that the plants may have been “stolen to order” by foolish and selfish orchid collectors, who don’t care about the damage they’re causing. The stolen species will likely die after being dug up and replanted.
Other orchids are already extinct or highly endangered in the UK because of habitat destruction and illegal poaching. True orchid lovers don’t steal plants from the wild and threaten rare species. Never take flowers or plants from the wild, or buy plants which have been removed from the wild. Use caution when photographing plants, and remove location data when posting photos on social media.
As more in-person orchid events return, it’s also nice to see online events continuing. For example, this year’s Orchid Digest Speakers Day allows for both in-person and virtual attendance, so people can attend from anywhere in the world. Stay safe at in-person events by wearing masks and getting vaccinated.
