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Glenda Lask and Carolyn Butcher, both past
presidents of the Michigan Orchid Society, presented a slide-illustrated talk on "Orchid Hunting
with the Incas," about their interesting adventures collecting orchids in the Peruvian Andes.
Glenda is also an AOS probationary judge. They emphasized that they only collected orchids
when they had permission and appropriate permits, where it was legal to do so, and where the
orchids were extraneous--such as in commercial citrus groves--or likely to die, such as from
freshly felled or fallen trees or in areas newly cleared by slash-and-burn agricultural methods.
They described how a telescoping plant collecting pole can be devised from simple hardware such as aluminum pipe, shower curtain hooks, cotter pins, and a multi-pronged fishing spear or frog gig. They advised would-be orchid hunters not to indicate to local people that orchids have any significant value, particularly in many third-world countries where cash is hard to come by, otherwise the local people may strip all the orchids from area trees if they believe they can be sold. Wear a sweatshirt and long pants (and a hat if you don't have a lot of hair on your head) and be prepared to tie off the base of pant legs or tuck them into your boots to keep ants or other biting or stinging bugs away from legs and ankles. A canvas or other type vest with lots of pockets is handy, as is a police-type whistle if you get stuck somewhere and need to call for help. Cloth bags with a shoulder strap, such as newspaper delivery people use, are useful for carrying collected plant material. Expect to get hot, wet, and muddy and be prepared for primitive lodging and bathroom facilities--without hot water--where other interesting creatures such as treefrogs may also dwell.
Our speakers gave two examples of how observing orchids in their natural habitat can help one to become a better orchid grower. Glenda noted that many orchids are exposed to far greater daily or seasonal extremes of alternating wet and dry periods than one might expect from general reading. Carolyn described how she found a magnificent specimen of Phragmipedium boissieranum growing vigorously in a four-inch-deep layer of wet moss in running water atop a base of clay, and she found Oncidium sanderae growing on a lichen-covered tree overhanging a river.
We thank all our members who brought in refreshments or items for the plant table or the raffle table. However, because of limited space available in this newsletter, we'll postpone reproting the results of the GLOS Show and our February plant table listing until the April issue.--Neal Foster