Journal Number 110
November 2008
EPONYMOUS ORCHIDS
By Val Smith
John George Robertson 1803-1862
Calochilus robertsonii
In 1941 Reverend H M R Rupp, who spent his spare time studying the orchids of Australasia, wrote in "The Victorian Naturalist" that the National Herbarium of New South Wales contained a number of orchid
specimens bearing the labels "Herbarium of J G Robertson". The localities given were Wando Vale,
Glenelg River, or Portland - all in south-west Victoria. Calochilus robertsonii, named after J G Robertson,
is one of three Australian bearded orchids that also occur in New Zealand, and may well be represented
in that collection. Who was Robertson?
John George Robertson was born in Glasgow in 1803, and spent two years as a botanist and naturalist
with an Indian expedition before migrating to Australia in 1831. For the latter seven of the nine years he
spent in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) he managed "Formosa", the estate of early Tasmanian botanist
Robert William Lawrence. He knew Ronald Gunn, who had met Lawrence before his death in 1831, and
was sending Tasmanian plant specimens to William Hooker at Kew. Encouraged by Gunn, John Robertson
and other local naturalists were soon collecting for Hooker as well.
Moving to Victoria in 1840, Robertson landed at Portland Bay with a valuable consignment of stock, and took
up the Wando Vale pastoral run near Casterton. On several occasions Governor Latrobe was a guest at
Wando Vale, the two men having mutual botanical interests. Robertson collected extensively on his property,
and also in the south-east of South Australia. He maintained regular correspondence with Gunn and other
botanists, and Gunn may also have visited Wando Vale, for the labels on Robertson's specimens at Sydney
are in the same handwriting as those of Gunn's own herbarium there. The development of a garden at Wando
Vale was early on Robertson's agenda, and a long list of plants supplied by a Launceston nurseryman in 1846
show that Robertson was an ardent grower as well as collector of plants. He and his wife, Mary McConachie
from Coleraine, had no children.
In the mid-1850s Robertson sold Wando Vale and returned to England and Scotland, where he purchased "Baronald", near Lanark. His personal collection of 4,000 Victorian specimens was given to Sir William Jackson
Hooker at Kew. George Bentham had access to it while preparing his "Flora Australiensis"; he mentioned
Robertson frequently, and commemorated his botanical work in the names Calochilus robertsonii and
Ranunculus robertsonii. John George Robertson died at "Baronald" in 1862.
Calochilus (Gk kalos: "beautiful"; cheilos: "lip") is an Australian genus of terrestrial orchids, a few of which
have spread to Papua New Guinea, New Caledonia and New Zealand. Most have hairy labella and are known
as "beardies".
Calochilus robertsonii is a slender to robust orchid with a single, erect channelled leaf and up to 15 flowers
on its solitary stem up to 50 cm high. The flowers have greenish red petals and sepals with prominent reddish
stripes, and a hairy red beard-like labellum with a hidden short, twisted hairless ribbon at the tip.
There are prominent "eyes" at the bases of the column-wings.
It prefers sunny places, often dry and bare areas under eucalyptus, or in geothermal ground, and flowers
from November to December. It is common in Australia, but in New Zealand is confined to a few sites in the
central North Island, where its survival is at risk.
Pencil drawings of Calochilus robertsonii
by Bruce Irwin
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