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The CITES parties recently had a meeting in Thailand and agreed to a change in the rules for exporting orchids. Certain hybrids may now be moved from country to country, in pots and in bloom, without CITES papers.What will it mean to us? Asian countries have the climate and the cheaper labor for producing mass quantities of plants. They have also spent years on breeding programs to develop "better" plants. We will see the mass marketing of great plants to compete with mums, cyclamens and the like. It will mean a lot more people having access to orchid plants who might want to join a club. It will also make it very difficult for local dealers to bloom a plant for the same price as the imports. Dealers had best find a niche in the market of specialty plants.
In this newsletter is an article giving more details on the CITES changes. Watch the Canadian CITES website for when the new rules take effect in Canada. Also have a look at the other website mentioned for pictures of what can be imported. I left for last the comment that all the changes appear to apply only to commercial, large shipments, not to an individual wanting to bring a few plants home from another country.
Jerry Bolce - Editor
As a reminder to everyone, the due date for your 2005 COC dues is fast approaching. The membership fee is $1.00 for each member of your society. The COC membership year is January 1 to December 31, the same as a calendar year. Your COC dues are due by January 31, 2005. Invoice for your dues was e-mailed to each society in November.
The annual meeting of the Native Orchid Conference will be held at St. Benedict's Retreat & Conference Centre, 225 Masters Avenue, Winnipeg, Manitoba, July 9-12, 2005. Please e-mail Lorne Heshka at lheshka@mts.net if you would like to receive a Conference flyer. Alternatively, phone Lorne at (204)663-6850.
The tentative agenda includes a whole day devoted to The Western Prairie Fringed Orchid, Platanthera praeclara. A field trip to the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve and other sites in southeastern Manitoba will be held on the following day when we will have an excellent opportunity to see one of Canada's most endangered species. There will be a range of presentations on the third day followed by visits to see other native orchids on the fourth day.
Anyone interested in Canada's native orchids should enjoy this conference.
Cattleyas - by Ken Girard.
Oncidiums - by Gordon Heaps.
Fragrant Orchids by Marilyn Light.
Hardy Orchids and Their Culture by Bill Bischoff
Phragmipediums by Ingrid Ostrander
Lycastes by Ingrid Ostrander
More information on the programs is available on the COC website.
The Foundation for Orchid Research and Conservation (FORC) has been in existence for just over 6 months now and I thought I would update people as to what has been happening.
The Directors have been named with the following people and positions:
President- Douglas Alison
Vice-President- Lynne Cassidy
Secretary- Marjorie Disher
Treasurer- Allan Ross
Member-at-large-Mark Elliott
It was also decided that the President of the Vancouver Orchid Society would be an "ex-officio" member.
FORC has an arrangement with the National Science and Engineering Research Council (NSERC), whereby NSERC advertises an annual grant from FORC available to successful applicants doing graduate work in orchid biology/conservation. The applicant must hold NSERC funding and apply to FORC for a supplement to their NSERC award (see the NSERC website for application requirements http://www.nserc.gc.ca/sf_e.asp?nav=sfnav&lbi=orchid).
There were several people interested in the annual scholarship offered for the first time this past June through the NSERC partnership, with one complete application being received. However, the Directors decided that the application did not quite meet the requirements for funding. Other individuals showed interest in applying in the next round of applications due in June of 2005.
The FORC has received charitable status allowing us to issue income tax receipts for any donations to help support the scholarships.
In addition, FORC still has some copies of the Proceeding of the 16th WOC available for purchase at $20.00 plus p&h. Please contact us if you are interested.
Mark Elliott, email: melliott@mrl.ubc.ca
Since we have moved from Alberta to Vancouver Island, several years ago, a few of our friends, knowing that we love and grow orchids, have invited us to visit their gardens, acreages and favourite woods to meet the wild orchids of Vancouver Island.
There are no Cypripediums here - this is the land of the Northwest Pacific Rain Forest and from October to February, it rains. A lot of limestone rock can be found here, but the constant rain achieves a rather acidic soil. Our treasured Cypripediums that we brought with us from Alberta, have mostly succumbed to this constant, soft and gentle rain. It did not help to cover the ground around our plants with lime. It also did not help to cover the plants themselves during the winter, trying to keep off the rain. It did not help to put them into pots, in the alpine house. Slowly but surely they all went away. These mainland dwellers do not belong here!
Of course, there are many other orchids that have evolved in this area and they do very nicely. We have seen groves of Calypso bulbosa and the immigrant Epipactis helleborine is becoming a weed in the flower beds. There are Goodyeras and other tiny-flowered species, we find different Corallorhizae, Spiranthes, Platantheras and many others.
Then, two years ago, a friend showed me orchids that are not supposed to grow here, but they do. They are listed as growing only in Washington State, Oregon, Northern California and in Idaho; Dr. Petrie actually mentions finding three little plants of this species in Southern British Columbia. It is an extremely elusive little elf, the ghostly white Cephalanthera austinae.
The genus is of Northern European distribution, with Cephalanthera austinae the only new world representative. The plants are saprophytic and like others of this persuasion, they have to form a symbiosis with some micorrhizae in order to exist. When conditions are right, you may be fortunate to see the pale glowing tapers of the Phantom Orchid standing on dark carpets of fir needles, exuding a gentle vanilla scent. They bloom for about a month, set and disperse seed and then go to rest again, like Sleeping Beauty, for many years.
Like many terrestrial orchids that find conditions above ground not to their liking, the plants may stay underground, existing and living as the fungi do. You might be walking right over top of their sleeping places you would not know that you are stepping on the beds of little fairies. It may take a long time before, on a happy day in May, the little ghosts appear again, shining strangely in the twilight of the forest.
Ingrid Schmidt-Ostrander
Ross Otto has produced culture sheets for each of Masdevallia and Lycaste orchids and one on importing orchids into Canada.The sheets are available on the COC website as web pages for fast viewing and also as pdf files for one-page printing.
I understand how annoying it can be when a tag is lost or if a name is mispelled such that we can only guess at what it is. I appreciate the frustration of the enthusiastic hobbyist who brings a lovely blooming `supermarket' orchid to the show only to learn that it might not be eligible since it lacks a name. Even when there is a label, the hobbyist can only assume that their supermarket orchid is correctly named. It is unlikely that even a Phalaenopsis expert could dispute a name unless it is a spurious one. Hybrids are especially difficult to distinguish if their labels get mixed up or lost. What really irritates some hobbyists is the change in generic names just when they thought they had the common ones in hand. In this era of molecular genetics, generic and specific names (epithets) can change with the outcome of a comprehensive analysis. A new name may or may not be accepted by the scientific community but that still leaves the amateur wondering `just what is in a name?'
There has been an effort on the part of major laboratories around the world to sample genera and species of orchids once thought to be related using more traditional techniques of flower structure. Many of the genera retain their names but some different names must be used to identify those orchids found to be unique or more closely allied to other existing genera. Either a new name is created or an existing name once passed over by earlier taxonomists is employed to identify the orchids. All name changes affecting orchid hybrid registration are reviewed by the International Orchid Registrar. To learn more about current changes and newly registered hybrids, go to:
Some of the most demanding have been studies of the large
genera of Dendrobium, Epidendrum, and
Oncidium but studies of smaller genera have also turned up
interesting relationships. Taxonomists using molecular techniques
are careful to conserve names wherever possible rather than
creating new ones. In some instances, there has been little
choice as in the case of Zelenkoa onusta, once called
Oncidium onustum. Once the generic name has been created,
the specific epithet is changed, if necessary, to agree with the
generic name. We see this with Oncidium guianense which
becomes Tolumnia guianensis, and with Milt.
schroederiana and Milt. warscewiczii, which have been
transferred to Oncidium as Oncidium schroederianum
and Oncidium fuscatum, respectively. If a species must be
trans
ferred from one genus to an existing genus, its specific epithet
cannot duplicate an existing one. Therefore, when Miltonia
warscewiczii was transferred to Oncidium, the
specific epithet warscewiczii could not be retained and an
alternate was chosen which in this case is fuscatum. You
can download recent changes affecting the genus Oncidium
by visiting the Wildcatt site and looking under news.
When there are specific and generic name changes, this also impacts hybrid generic epithets. For example, hybrids registered as having Oncidium onustum as a parent, have to be changed. Since Zelenkoa is a new generic epithet then intergeneric hybrid generic names must also change. Howeara Mary Eliza becomes Zelenkoara Mary Eliza. Colmanara Wildcat has Milt. warscewiczii in its parentage. Since the Miltonia has been transferred to Oncidium, the intergeneric hybrid becomes more simply, Odontocidium. Being aware of possible synonyms is worthwhile for anyone intending to show a plant, make a cross or register a hybrid.
Marilyn H. S. Light
All changes to CITES Appendices come into effect at an international level on January 12, 2005 but in Canada, new regulations will only be amended about April, 2005. Check the CITES website monthly for the most up-to-date information.
Of the many proposals regarding endangered species, four affecting trade in orchids were accepted. There are two down-listings of species from Appendix I to Appendix II. Additionally, a number of hybrids and intergeneric orchid hybrids will be exempted from CITES documentation but only if particular requirements are met. Genera affected by the new guidelines include interspecific and intergeneric hybrids of Cymbidium, Dendrobium (nobile and phalenopsis types only), Phalaenopsis, and Vanda. A complete guide to regulations (with illustrations) for CITES exemption is found at: http://www.cites.org/common/cop/13/E13-P41Annex.pdf
Marilyn H. S. Light
The purpose of COC news is to inform members of the meetings, policies of the COC, to profile members, and to provide technical information regarding happenings, trends and techniques in orchid culivation across the country and around the world.
We welcome your suggestions and contributions. Deadline for each issue is one month before the issue dates previously announced.
Recipients of this newsletter are strongly urged to pass a copy on to other members of their society
Officers of the Canadian Orchid Congress
President Margaret Blewett
902-827-2614
mblewett@accesswave.ca
Past President Ingrid Ostrander
250-652-0753
ifl@telus.net
Vice-President Lorne Heshka
204-663-6850
lheshka@escape.ca
Treasurer Janette Richardson
306-543-0560
dale.richardson@sasktel.net
Secretary Terry Kennedy
905-727-3319
ourtropics@ica.net
Education Mark Elliott
604-943-6979
melliott@mrl.ubc.ca
Conservation Marilyn Light
819-776-2655
mlight@igs.net
COC Web Site -
http://www.CanadianOrchidCongress.ca/
Please send in your show information - date, location,
contact, etc.