Journal Number 90
March 2004

EDITORIAL

David Lang and British Orchids
By Ian St George

It is a delight to welcome an old friend to the pages of the NZ Native Orchid Journal. David Lang begins a four-part series on British orchids in this issue.

I took sabbatical leave in England in the spring of 1986, and decided to try to see some native orchids at the weekends. There was a book in the Dunedin Public Library called British orchids, written by one David Lang, and the blurb seemed to indicate that he was a vet, and that he lived in Lewes, Sussex. I wrote to him at "The veterinary surgery, Lewes, Sussex, England" and got a warm response.

Even better were the cakes and ale that he served when I arrived on his doorstep one Friday evening, and better still the companionship and interest he showed in subsequent weeks.

He took me to a range of favorite orchid spots, and gave me maps and directions to many more, in different parts of England and Wales. My weekends were spent on wonderful treasure-hunts to picturesque places. Often the directions included local pubs where the beer or the food was notable.

He it was who told me something of orchid photography: no flash, no artificial light, no artificial backgrounds, just a little "gardening" to show the orchid properly, replaced after the shot.

He is working on a third edition of British orchids, has written a specialized book on the orchids of Sussex, and has examined in detail the orchid flora of Bhutan, with another book on that subject in preparation.

Britain is isolated, as is New Zealand, but its much closer proximity to the mainland means there is little endemism among its orchid flora, or at least a greater proportion of British taxa are also European than New Zealand taxa are also Australian. All are terrestrial; most are insect-pollinated and therefore attractive.