Orchid Petals

In the tropical plant house…
Kristina: I've always been fascinated by orchids. My mom was too, she said there are 30,000 varieties. But what puzzles me is why members of such a widespread family are also so beautiful.
Kurt: Well, like any large family, orchids have both beautiful and not-so-beautiful members.
Kristina: What are their distinguishing features?
Kurt: One key feature is the Blütenblatts—uh, what do you call them in English?
Kristina: Petals.
Kurt: Ja, ja, petals! Orchids have six petals. There is a "sixness" about them. I mean, they have three outer petals und three inner petals. But the lower third petal, the labellum, is unique. It contains the pollinating parts.
Kristina: The pistil and stamens?
Kurt: Ja, exactly! The labellum does the pollination.
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Voice-over
Prepare botanical vocabulary before exploring differences between orchid varieties. Begin with terrestrial vs epiphytic. Knowing plant parts such as sepals, stamens, pollinia, labellum, stigma will be helpful.

White Orchid Rabbit

Framed in white Phalaenopsis orchids and bringing you luck this month is the white orchid rabbit.

Phalaenopsis lapin

WHITE RABBIT WHITE RABBIT WHITE RABBIT

Leptoceras menzeisii

 There actually is an orchid rabbit (Leptoceras menziesii), endemic in South Australia, not totally white, its foliage crowned with pink and red. Flowers after fires. Don't we all.

Endangered Orchids

Dr Eric Danell summarises what is needed to protect endangered orchids.

Q: How do we go about implementing procedures for protecting endangered  orchids?

ED: Five things are needed.

We need national parks.

We need good laws and law enforcement.

We need to fight poverty.

We need a good education system so everybody in society is aware of their native flora and fauna.

And we need responsible orchid collectors.

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Voice-over

Dr Eric Danell is working in Northern Thailand to foster awareness of the native flora and fauna among both Thais and overseas visitors. His knowledge is encyclopedic and his explanations clearly lay out biological processes and what needs to be done to protect our heritage. His work is important not only in his local area but is a global issue affecting life on Earth.

See Endangered Orchids, 2013 at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhFVv9EdsTk

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Endangered Orchids

Voice-over

Orchids are often ostentatiously ornamented. Like the slipper orchid. But not all. Among the 25,000 orchid species, many are relatively muted, subtle and subdued. Like this one found in Northern Thailand.

The ecologist explains…

There are two main threats endangering plants in northern Thailand.

Orchids, like so many plant species, are collected, often illegally. Others have their habitats destroyed by logging, legal and illegal.

An Example of a Rare Orchid

Vanilla siamensis

This is Vanilla siamensis. Like many orchids, it is epiphytic; it lives on other plants. It’s not a parasite, it doesn’t damage the host, it just uses the trunk of a tree to grow on. Its environment is important to it. Its seeds need a fungus to get enough carbohydrates for growth until it can make its leaves, and it needs a special insect for its pollination. If any of these are missing from its environment, the orchid will not grow.

History of Endangered Plants

Hunting plants and removing them from their natural environment is not new. In Victorian times, hunters would collect rare plants, especially orchids for wealthy English collectors. In extreme cases, some orchid smugglers would destroy remaining plants and burn the environment to make the specimens more valuable due to scarcity.

What can we do?

• Multilateral agreements such as CITES can help to make it illegal to collect and transport rare plants.
• Schools can include ecology in their curricula. Teachers should make plant identification interesting.
• The tourism industry has a responsibility to make travellers aware of endangering plants. Take photos, not specimens, and don’t disturb the environment.
• Plant growers should develop an ethical sense of sustainable collecting.

 (from Endangered Orchids, 2013)

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Plain Vanilla or Exotic Chocolate

Plain Vanilla or Exotic Chocolate?

Flamboyant flavors are vigorously vended…

Dean: You have vanilla?

Mr Bishop: Ice cream? Sure, we’ve got plain vanilla. But can I interest you in something more exotic?

Dean: Chili chocolate?

Mr Bishop: Tame. Try a Bacon Dark, or a Cherry Rooibos Choco, a Smoke and Stout Dairy or a Black Salt Cacao.

Dean: Thanks. I’ll take plain vanilla.

(The Shakespeare Road Dairy, 2015)

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Voice-over

Poor vanilla. Disparagingly named “plain” vanilla when set alongside “exotic” chocolate flavors.

This is really ironical. Vanilla comes from orchids. Vanilla is “orchidaceously” exotic. There are more than 20,000 species. But there are only three main cultivars of cacao trees. Out of such diversity, drastic reduction develops. From such a restricted resource, diversity is marketed. Marketers can make silk purses from sow’s ears.

Making merit

George offers flowers to the monk.

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Monk: Blessed be your family.

George: They are the best orchids.

Monk: They are nice orchids.

George: I grew them myself.

Monk: That is creditable. But money would be...

George: Are orchids an unworthy offering?

Monk: Orchids cannot be eaten and these cannot be sold. I am sorry, there is no merit in decoration.

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Voiceover

For Thais, making merit is summarized as, “if you do good you will receive good; if you do evil you will receive evil.” George doesn’t quite understand that what would be more appropriate would be alms or food, the monk seems a little more direct in his explanation than most. His double negative “cannot be eaten” and “cannot be sold” capture the dilemma neatly, but when he says, “I am sorry” it is more of a rejection of George’s offering than an apology.

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