Journal Number 92
September 2004

NOTES etc

Jsaias M Rolando wrote (22 Apr), "Tengo el penoso deber de comunicar a la Comunidad de Orquidofitos amigos de todo el mundo la triste desaparicion de nuestro gran capitan en Aguas Calientes, Macchu Picchu Pueblo Hotel: MOISES QUISPE.

Be known that our Great Captain at The Macchu Picchu Pueblo Hotel Orchid Garden is not anymore with us. A big land slice went down through Aguas Calientes and Moises Quispe is in the list of missing persons. A lady saw him going back to the place where the rocks and land were going down to the Urubamba river. Adios, Good By our good orchid friend".

We received the following spam on the Internet recently: "We have known your sales information we will introduce this to our friends we need a long and friendly cooperation.
If you need the raw material of Gastrodia please contact us!

Gastrodia elata powder is a new product developed by our company,which is the efficient composition extracted from the flesh the Gastrodia elata .the colour is light yellow and it is widely used in the fields of medicine chemical industry and food. orders are welcome!

Gastrodia elata is the precious pharmacy plant and has the history of two thousand years.

Gastrodia elata cure the high pressure,headache and dizziness, limbs numbness and baby convulsion etc. just because it can strength the indentiy of the optic nerve,in the recent years it always be the health pharmacy for the aviator. because it has the special efficiency for the old dull-witted so this increase the its output and the average price has reach the highest level of the history."

Hmm. special efficacy for the dull-witted, eh? must get some - Ed.

DNA studies are not solely the tool of splitters. Nature 425, 172 - 175 (11 September 2003) carried a paper called "Extreme reversed sexual size dimorphism in the extinct New Zealand moa Dinornis" by Michael Bunce and others:

"The ratite moa were massive graviportal browsers weighing up to 250 kg that dominated the New Zealand biota until their extinction approximately 500 yr ago. Despite an extensive Quaternary fossil record, moa taxonomy remains problematic and currently 11 species are recognized.

Three Dinornis species were found throughout New Zealand and differed markedly in size (1-2 m height at back) and mass (from -34 to 242 kg). Surprisingly, ancient mitochondrial DNA sequences show that the three species were genetically indistinguishable within each island, but formed separate North and South Island clades.

Here we show, using the first sex-linked nuclear sequences from an extinct species, that on each island the three morphological forms actually represent just one species, whose size varied markedly according to sex and habitat. The largest females in this example of extreme reversed sexual size dimorphism were about 280% the weight and 150% the height of the largest males, which is unprecedented among birds and terrestrial mammals.

The combination of molecular and palaeontological data highlights the difficulties of analysing extinct groups, even those with detailed fossil records."

Ice cream is threatening Turkey's orchids. BBC News reports, "Several rare orchid species found only in Turkey are facing extinction - because of the Turks' love of ice cream made from salep - a flour produced from the tubers of dried, wild orchids growing in the mountains of south-eastern Turkey. It is so popular that part of the city of Istanbul has become known as the "ice cream district".

But "The orchids in Turkey are under very serious threat," botanist Ozdemir Ozhatay told the BBC. "For this reason it is forbidden to export - but they are still using it in Turkey for the ice cream."

Local shepherds have also offered evidence that the flower is in steep decline in the country. "Everyone here depends on ice cream," one told Outlook. "We sell the milk of our goats, and collect orchids. But the flowers are more and more difficult to find - more and more ice cream producers are using them, and it is disappearing. You have to go higher and higher into the mountains to find them."

Environmentalists are now calling for a total ban on the use of salep in ice cream, but such drastic action appears to have little support among the ice cream fanatics in Turkey. "For a very long time, we have been eating ice cream - why should we stop?" said one. "(If it is banned) we will just eat illegal ice cream."

Factory owner Mehmet Kumble, whose family firm uses up to three tonnes of salep, or twelve million flowers, every year, said he had no plans to cut back on production. "It gives the ice cream its unique strength and special taste," Mr Kumble added.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3126047.stm for more.

Whoopsie. One of those slightly embarrassing moments. Well, two of them perhaps. I printed the photo of an alpine Mt Holdsworth plant (right) [J86 p32] and labeled it as P. australis, and perhaps it is. But actually I think it is P. areolata.

Pat Enright sent me to Paraparaumu to examine a Pterostylis that he thought looked a bit unusual. I told him it was P. banksii: it's the photo at lower right, the plants with the long, wide, arching leaves. "Long, wide, arching leaves"! Ping! isn't that a characteristic of P. auriculata? Well, yes, I have to say it is. And apart from Colenso's and my Catlins sites, it has been found on Kapiti Island (by Peter de Lange), little more than a stone's throw from Paraparaumu. Is "Paraparaumu" the umu (oven) for cooking parapara (fern roots, or orchid tubers)? -an orchid oven?

Remy Souche has just announced the publication of his Les orchidees sauvages de France, in the collection Grandeur Nature, Pelican, Vilo editions, ISBN 2 7191 0642 9: format 23 x 31.5 cm, 340 pages, 1220 photographs, on 170G satin paper, for sale at €45.50.

Text and photographs Remy Souche, 7 Route des Cevennes, 34380 St Martin de Londres,
04 67 55 79 20, remy.souche@wanadoo.fr.

The Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries has awarded the 2004 CBHL Annual Literature Award to Slipper Orchids of Vietnam by Leonid Averyanov, Phillip Cribb, Phan Ke Loc, and Nguyen Tien Hiep.

The award is given annually to both the author and publisher of a work that makes a significant contribution to the literature of botany or horticulture.

We still have a few copies of Bruce Irwin's highly-acclaimed booklet of his early NZ native orchid paintings available at $32.50. from the editor.

Iwitahi 2004  10-12 Dec. Same time, same place: book with Sue and Robbie Graham 141 SH 1, Waitahanui, Taupo, Phone: 07 3770469.

NZNOG AGM: Iwitahi 11 December 2004. Agenda in December Journal.