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Journal Number 91
June 2004
NOTES etc
The Western Australian Regional Orchid Organization will hold a WA State Orchid
Conference, which will be called the WA Orchid Spectacular, and will be held at the Fremantle
Passenger Terminal in Fremantle WA, 13-19 September 2005.
"This is the first in a series of bulletins to let people in the orchid world know about the Conference. We hope to have updates at regular intervals between now and September 2005. Our lecture program is not yet completed, but so far we have had acceptances by Michelle Andriamanamihaja, Madagascar, Madagascan orchids; Ray Clement, NSW, Australian native epiphytes; Doug Matters, Queensland, Phrags; Ron Parsons, California USA, rare orchid sp; Norito Hasagawa, California USA, Paphs; Kevin Western South Aust., Aust. native terrestrials +flasking + deflasking; John Robertson, Queensland, Phalaenopsis; Geoff Stocker, Queensland, PNG species; Terry Poulton, Victoria, Cymbidiums; David Banks, NSW, variation in Dendrobiums; Ross Maidment, Queensland, Cattleyas; Kevin Hipkins, NSW, Odontoglossums; most of the guest speakers will also be orchid vendors.
"One of the great attractions for the conference will be organized tours of our WA native orchids flowering in situ. WA native orchids are renowned for their mass flowering, and September is the prime time to see them at their blooming best. We also expect to have a major speaker on the subject of our local orchids.
"The venue, the Passenger Terminal at Fremantle, overlooks the Fremantle Harbour
and is close to all amenities and public transport. We expect to have a free bus pass
the door on a regular basis. This bus takes a circular route around Fremantle, picking
up and dropping off along the way. Registration forms are in the process of being
drawn up and will be made available as soon as possible. We expect that there will be
an early bird registration, so don't miss out. Our web site is being set up as I write.
It will contain all the info you could require."
Tony's Orchid Page: http://members.iinet.net.au/~emntee/
Wanneroo Orchid Society: http://members.iinet.net.au/~emntee/page2.html
Wanneroo Newsletter: http://members.iinet.net.au/~emntee/page49.html
The Species Orchid Society: http://members.iinet.net.au/~emntee/page18.html
Chuck Landis wrote (10 February), "While clearing a track through an area of regenerating natives containing a few rhododendron seedlings adjoining our garden here at Warrington, I came across two Gastrodia orchids. I've made measurements, `taken apart' a couple flowers under the microscope, and made some sketches.
I am fairly certain that they are G. `long column' as in your 1999 book and Hugh Wilson's Stewart Island book. Sometimes I can even catch the fragrance of freesias. I should add that I am not (have not been) a botanist or even committed orchid follower, but rather am a keen amateur botanist, who has picked up the interest in retirement.
The plants (two) are in line with, and are 15 & 50 cm away from, a 1m plant of Rh. thomsonii, grown from seed (obtained from China and germinated by Brent Murdoch), and I suspect they are related to its root system. They are in a shady area dominated by Fuchsia and Mahoe. I am writing because I see in your Nature Guide to NZ Native Orchids that `Long Column' is not recorded from Dunedin area.... Note that the two plants are not tall, only 30-35 cm, with 24 and 34 flowers each".
Chuck sent flowers which were indeed Gastrodia "long column", a new record for that region Ed. |
Oops! "In my article on milk production last week please read cow for horse throughout." That
correction of HL Mencken's is the favourite of Richard Smith, editor of the British Medical Journal.
Another favourite is: "Instead of being arrested, as we stated, for kicking his wife downstairs and
hurling a kerosene lamp after her, the Reverend James P Wellman died unmarried four years ago."
As an editor who is responsible for any errors in NZNOGJ, I have sympathy.
If the inference from our occasional "Oops!" column is that the Journal is sloppy, I am, like Richard Smith, wholly unapologetic. "Great publications," he observes loftily, "are full of corrections.
Look at the New York Times or the Melbourne Age. It's crummy publications that don't have them.
We all make mistakes, but we don't all admit them." Errors are usually pointed out by assiduous
readers, and we are grateful.
Chiloglottone? That is the name given to the single chemical compound that Chiloglottis trapeziformis and the female of the Australian thynnine wasp Neozeleboria cryptoides each produce to attract the male wasp.
Whereas most volatile attractants ("scents" and pheromones) are composed of many compounds, this orchid has only one, a fascinating concept when you come to consider co-evolution of the orchid and the wasp.
For some truly stunning photographs of the male wasp and the orchid flower, see
http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/orchid_pollination/, or you can read the original article (Schiestl FP, Peakall R, Mant JM, Ibarra F, Schulz C, Franke S, Francke W. (2003). The chemistry of sexual deception in an orchid-wasp pollination system. Science 302, 437-438. Published October 17). |
John Milton (the English poet) wrote, "Give me the liberty to know, to utter, and to argue freely according to conscience, above all liberties. Truth was never put to the worse in a free and open encounter... It is not impossible that she (truth) may have more shapes than one... If it come to prohibiting, there is not ought more likely to be prohibited than truth itself, whose first appearance to our eyes bleared and dimmed with prejudice and custom is more unsightly and implausible than many errors... Where there is much desire to learn there of necessity will be much arguing, much writing, many opinions; for opinion in good men is but knowledge in the making."
A good credo for the editor of a scientific journal, don't you think? |
For information on Diplodium (Pterostylis) alveata, see:
http://www.anos.org.au/information/articles/species/ptobtusa.htm
The 2005 World Orchid Conference - for the first time in its 90 years' history - will be held
in France, in historic Dijon, the beautiful capital of Burgundy, home of the renowned vineyards,
in March 2005.
Look for details at http://www.woc2005.org/.
Turkish native orchids: 64 species, 130 photographs; see them at:
www.geocities.com/anatoliannativeorchids.
Margaret Menzies described and photographed her Thelymitra hatchii from the Waitiri track
in J77 p14, and it looks identical to my pink-cilia T. hatchii from Mt Holdsworth, Tararuas
[J90: 23, 26].
Bruce Irwin wrote, "Since I submitted drawings of Nematoceras (Corybas) triloba "tussock" to the
Journal, Graeme showed me photos of the taxon (see "Some Christmas Orchids" this issue) on
which the upper/sidelobes of the labellum were held almost vertically, rather than horizontally, as
in my drawings.
Consequently, on side view, no gap showed between top of labellum and dorsal sepal. However this
would mean that the upper labellum lobes on fresh flowers would be held even further apart than in
my sketches, a character that separates them from any other form of N. triloba I have observed.
The comparatively very short lateral tepals and the leaf clearly longer than wide, are other points of difference.
Correction: in J90 p31 (Corybas "tussock" the leadline from the note "stigmatic disc" leads not to the stigma, but to the base of the column. The sketch of the column on the right is correctly labelled.
Dan Hatch wrote, "You say people are objecting to the new generic names - how far back do you
want to go? To George Forster in 1786 and Epidendrum autumnale? Or Forster's Ophrys unifolia in
the same paper?"
Hhmm. Good point - Ed.
Lissopimpla excelsa is the famed ichneumonid wasp that pollinates Cryptostylis subulata, and seems to be known as the "orchid dupe" in Australia, where it has been observed pollinating all the Cryptostylis spp., as well as Prasophyllum aff. frenchii and members of the P. odoratum group (of which our P. aff. patens is one).
Unusually among orchids, Prasophyllum does offer a reward to its pollinator, in the form of nectar. |
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Eric Scanlen wrote, `Bruce Irwin's excellent drawings of Gastrodia labella in Journal 38:7, June1991, (image right) rang a bell with the Column, only because he'd just been reading Colenso's diagnosis for
Gastrodia leucopetala.
Bruce was quite apologetic in J38:6 for illustrating this same atypical labellum on Gastrodia cunninghamii in Ian St George's and Doug McCrae's 1990 NZ Orchids, Natural History and Cultivation pp 28 & 45.
The "atypical" labellum on the left in J38:7 matches Colenso's diagnosis of G. leucopetala quite nicely but Bruce remains loyal to it belonging to G. cunninghamii and "showing the sort of variation we can expect within a species." The Column isn't so sure.
Colenso wrote in part, in the TNZI 1886 18; "labellum... anterior portion... with two reddish longitudinal ridges, their margins thickly crenulato-fimbriate, rising divergent from the middle and convergent towards tip, but not joined to it...". There was no drawing attached but Bruce's would have done!
The usual wishbone-like callus in G. cunninghamii, G. aff. sesamoides, G. "city" [J78:30] and G. "long column" all sport the yellow to orange wishbone-like calli under their labella. |
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So Colenso's and Bruce's paired callus ridges would seem to be significant variations from most
Gastrodia not including G. minor which also exhibits Colenso's twin ridges but is no contestant
for
its small size and few flowers.
Other features of Colenso's description, such as the dark labellum tip, makes G. leucopetala
disarmingly similar to G. cunninghamii at a casual glance.
TF Cheeseman was unimpressed with G. leucopetala, as he was, rightly or wrongly, with most of
Colenso's species and lumped G. leucopetala with G. cunninghamii in his 1925 Manual of the NZ
Flora. Moore and Edgar (1970 Flora 2 p158) followed Cheeseman but found type specimens at
both WELT and AK(?).
The Column is presently backing Colenso but would dearly like to see fresh specimens.
Moral: be critical, do take the time to search out apparent differences in your finds from like species. Our orchid history is littered with the edicts of the acknowledged experts like Cheeseman who weren't always right.
Action: anyone in forest from Dannevirke to the Rotorua area with a x10 lens and a razor blade in
early to mid December and who finds numerous tall, dark, short columned Gastrodia, please do a
careful section of one fresh flower. Look for that callus under the labellum. If it is the yellow wishbone
variety, you have G. cunninghamii, if it has Colenso's "two reddish longitudinal ridges" you will have
G. leucopetala. Kindly get the approval of the land owner and arrange for 3 fresh specimens of
G. leucopetala to be sent fast-post to Dr. Brian Molloy for DNA analysis, dissection and herbarium
record.
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