1

SOUTHERN ONTARIO ORCHID

SOCIETY NEWS September 2012,

Volume 47, Issue 8

Promenea Chameleon 'Rhys' AM-AOS Plant by Mario and Conni Ferrusi photo PP

Meeting Sunday, September 2, Toronto Botanical Garden, Sales at noon, program at 1 pm. Speaker: Ron Mc

Hatton, PhD. Ron is currently

the head of administration at the American Orchid Society. Ron has been an orchid personality for many many years. He is well known around the world for his many excellent lectures and articles and his tireless dedication to the well being of the orchid

world. Ron will be talking to us on Orchid Pests and Diseases, a subject we can all

relate to and one that Ron is sure to give a new twist.

This newsletter is two weeks early for a reason. Our June

speaker, Jason Fischer of Orchids Limited will be attending the Fraser Valley Orchid Society Show in British Columbia on October 19th to 21st. He has offered to accept orders from here in Ontario that he will then ship from B.C. to the Kennedys here. The rules and conditions for this opportunity are set out in the President’s message. Also Sam Tsui from Orchid Inn will be visiting Toronto September 1 and the Montreal Show October 13-14. He too is willing to bring plant orders for us. Orders must be to him by August 19th. Please respect the deadlines. You must arrange to pick up the orders.

Web site: www.soos.ca ; Member of the Canadian Orchid Congress; Affiliated with the American Orchid Society, the Orchid Digest and the International Phalaenopsis Alliance.

Membership: Annual Dues $30 per calendar year (January 1 to December 31 ). Surcharge $15 for newsletter by postal service.

Membership secretary: Marilyn Crompton, #1908-21 Overlea Blvd., Toronto ON M4H 1P2, phone 416-467-0018

Executive: President, Yvonne Schreiber, 905-473-3405; Vice-

president Laura Liebgott, 905-883-5290; Secretary, Sue Loftus 905-839-8281; Treasurer, John Vermeer, 905-823-2516

Other Positions of Responsibility: Program, Mario Ferrusi; Plant Doctor, Doug Kennedy; Meeting Set up, Tom Atkinson; Vendor and Sales table coordinator, Diane Ryley; Membership, Marilyn Crompton, Eric Terreau, Karen Hazelton; Web Master, Max Wilson; Newsletter, Peter and Inge Poot; Annual Show, Peter Poot; Refreshments, Joe O’Regan. Conservation Committee, Susan Shaw, Tom Atkinson; Show table, Iryna Bonya.

Honorary Life Members: Terry Kennedy, Doug Kennedy, Inge Poot, Peter Poot, Joe O’Regan, Diane Ryley, Wayne Hingston.

Annual Show: February 16 – 17, 2013

2

President’s Remarks Fellow orchid aficionados: For those of you who like the heat, this has certainly been a spectacular summer. The only thing that has been missing for “we gardeners” (and for all the farmers) has been rain.

Orchidfest took place on August 5th. Phil Spence was a stellar speaker and the potluck, as usual, was scrumptious. Thanks go out to everyone who brought a dish to share and to those who helped to organize the feast.

The Social Break will resume at the September 2nd meeting. The letters of the month for September will be last names that start with the letters N – R. We are asking anyone whose last name starts with this letter to bring in a treat to share. These treats should be finger foods only i.e. something that can be picked up with your fingers and does not require a plate or fork.

On the topic of comments presented at the Town Hall Forum, a request was made for a wider variety of plants for sale. Jason Fischer from Orchids Limited was our guest speaker at the June meeting. You had the opportunity to pre-order plants and Jason also brought plants to sell at the meeting. Jason grows a wide range of genera. Now that you have had a taste of what he grows, perhaps you are interested in acquiring more. Jason will be attending the Fraser Valley Orchid Society Show in British Columbia on October 19th to 21st. I am sure that the folks there would like to see you, but if travelling to B.C. is not in your plans, there is another option. Jason is willing to bring pre-ordered plants to the show and ship them to us in Ontario. There would be a 15% handling fee in addition to the prices on Jason’s website. The plants would all be shipped to the Kennedys for pick up and distribution. The deadline to order plants on Appendix I (Paphiopedilums and Phragmipediums) is August 20th. The deadline for plants on Appendix II (all other plants) is September 24th. Each individual places their own order and makes their payment directly to Jason. To alert Jason that your order is part of the pre-order for SOOS, in the “Special Instructions Field” indicate “SOOS Pre-order”. Jason’s website is www.orchidweb.com. Happy shopping.

Talk to me at a meeting; e-mail me at yvonneschreiber68@gmail.com, or phone me at 905-473-3405.

Yvonne Schreiber

Coming Events August

18. MJC judging, JBMtl. 10 am

September

1, Toronto Centre judging 1 pm at the

Toronto Botanical Garden

2, SOOS meeting Toronto Botanical Garden, sales 12 noon, program 1 pm

15. MJC judging, JBMtl. 10 am

29-30 Central Ontario Orchid Society Show

October

6, Toronto Centre judging 1 pm at the Toronto Botanical Garden

7, SOOS meeting Toronto Botanical Garden, sales 12 noon, program 1 pm

13, Ecos Show Montreal, MJC judging

3

27, RBG Show and COC meeting

AOS Judging Results

Please note, all of these awards are provisional until published by the American Orchid Society

Toronto Centre Judging July 7,

Promenea Norman Gaunt ‘Marsh Hollow’,

HCC-AOS 79 points. Mario and Conni

Ferrusi

Promenea Chameleon ‘Rhys’, AM-AOS 82

points, Mario and Conni Ferrusi

Promenea Ben Berliner ‘Marsh Hollow’

AM-AOS 80 points, Joyce Medcalf.

Neofinetia falcata ‘Nanyounishiki’ JC-AOS,

Dr. Leslie Ee.

Note! The next regular judging will be held at the

TBG on September 1 at 1 pm. AOS Judging is a service of the American Orchid Society and is open to all! Bring us your flowering orchids. We need the practice.

Phragmipedium Breeding and Culture by Jason Fischer of Orchids Limited, part 2

(transcribed by Inge Poot from a June 3, 2012 talk to SOOS) continued from the Summer issue.

Hybridizing for white Phragmipediums:

Crossing the tiny round white with a pink lip Phrag schlimii with Phrag longifolium, a species with long twisted petals, gives the famous Phrag Sedenii. (A lot of mix-up has occurred because a plant labelled Phrag sedenii was probably a Phrag. Sedenii crossed back onto Phrag. schlimii, in other words a Phrag Cardinale. However I suppose such a result could have been obtained by sibbing a Phrag Sedenii, since the progeny of such a cross could have almost any characteristic of either of the two species in its make-up yet would still be a Phrag Sedenii.) The typical Phrag Sedenii is white with a rose-pink lip. The petals are twisted and in good clones quite wide.

Phrag schlimii breeding is one avenue to white Phrags. Phrag Hanne Popow flavum a cross of besseae flavum X schlimii produces almost white flowers with just a few pink flushes. Sibbing two of the whitest clones will get some white progeny.

Phrag St Ouen flavum (Hanne Popow flavum –white with palest pink X besseae flavum -yellow)is not only a route to some white Phrags, but their 3N cross produced a veritable rainbow of colours in lovely pastels.

Another route to white Phrags is by crossing Phrag pearcii X Phrag Saint Ouen flavum to get the often white Phrag Ice Princess.

Hybridizing for pastel colours: (I bolded the best crosses only)

There are many crosses made that result in very similar pastel coloured Phrags. If they don’t contain Phrag schlimii then their petals are all fairly slender. Examples were Phrag Franz Glanz flavum (besseae flavum X richteri), Phrag Olaf Gruss flavum (besseae flavum X pearcei), Phrag Lutz Rolke flavum (besseae flavum X boisserianum),

Phrag Dreamsicle (Robert Palm flavum X Jason Fischer)-this cross is large: 13-14cm. The clone shown had pale orange flowers and a shape like a less full P. Don Wimber.

Phrag Patty Whack flavum (Robert Palm flavum X longifolium) shape is mostly longifolium and the colour is more delicate than either parent.

Phrag Robin Redbreast flavum (Robert Palm flavum X besseae flavum) can produce very flat flowers with quite wide petals and in very delicate colours, the clone shown had pale yellow colour with delicate pink shading on the petals.

4

Phrag Golden Beryl (Robert Palm flavum X wallisii) takes the wallisii shape and the Robert Palm flavum colour.

Phrag Icho Tower flavum (Beauport X besseae flavum) results in some quite full, flat pastel flowers. A peachy orange Jason Fischer was used, since you cannot get a flavum Jason Fischer.

Phrag Desormes (Hanne Popow flavum X Sorceror’s Apprentice) produces surprisingly full flowers with arching petals, all in deep rose and pale pink. One had white flowers, but it died.

Breeding with Phrag fischeri:

Phrag fischeri is closely related to Phrag schlimii. It has more pink colour than the latter species. The distinguishing characteristic are hairs on the pouch of Phrag fischeri. The two forms shown in the programme were one all rose pink and the other rose pink with a large central white patch in each petal. The contrasting white staminode with two deep purple dots can be absent in which case the plant is rapidly self-pollinating. Because it tends to self-pollinate it is usually best to use it as the pollen parent to make sure you actually get a cross and not a selfing! But since it was named after the Fischer family, they have explored all of its breeding potential!

Phrag Barbara LeAnn (besseae X fischeri) can produce delightfully round flowers with much better colour than P. Hanna Popov. Jason showed us a nice round red clone and one of a deep red-pink and the lower half of the petals white as in some fischeri clones. Trying to increase the flower size by crossing P. Barbara LeAnn with Phrag longifolium resulted in Phrag Waunakee Doll with at least one charming offspring with gracefully twisted petals of light pink with a darker pink picotee and the dark pink repeated on the pouch. Now if the less intensely pink dorsal had been straight instead of twisted this would have been a real winner! Crossing it back onto fischeri gives P. Ryoko Urabe, the clone shown was a full, round deep pink with the distal portion of the petals and dorsal changing abruptly to white. Backcrossing Barbara LeAnn unto besseae results in Phrag. Waunakee Sunset and the resulting clone shown was a round deep pink.

Crosses involving Phrag Lynn Evans-Goldner (P. schlimii X P. Barbara LeAnn) seem less successful.

Phrag Mem Estelle Getty (P. longifolium X P. fischeri) was illustrated with a plant that had

graceful tall stems with a pink flower showing a widened longifolium form.

Phrag Foolerisch, (April Fool X fischeri) resulted in a nice full flower with the lilac tones of fischeri intensified to deep red- pink.

Phrag Asuko Fischer (Jason Fischer X fischeri) seems lovely. The clone shown was deep red, had wide pointy petals whose lower half let a bit of white peek through. The flower was about 11cm in natural spread! Impressive! They chose a promising cross to name after Asuko! However, Jason has a sneaky suspicion, that the plant shown is suffering from a case of mixed up labels – hopefully this is not so!

Phrag Kelley Nash (P. Eric Young X fischeri) resulted in something close to P. Sedenii.

Phrag Autumn Fire (P. Eric Young(4n) X P. Barbara LeAnn) allowed for more recombination of traits. The clone shown had two flowers open, very round and full and the colour going from almost white in the centre to deep pink at the edges. The lip was red-pink with a white rim.

Phrag Beverly Fischer (P. St Ouen X P. fischeri) gave a plant with larger flowers in a redder fischeri colour scheme.

Phrag Pink Panther (schlimii X fischeri) resulted in something like a more deeply coloured fischeri.

Phrag Purple Wave (P. Mem Dick Clements X fischeri) resulted in a deep red quite full flower. The rim of the pouch was white with deep red dots.

Phrag Vyonne Fay Wilson (P. lindleyanum X P. fischeri) has nice dark red colour, but at best lindleyanum shape.

Another hohum cross Phrag Mardi Gras, was Phrag braziliensis (a quietly charming species, olive green flowers with twisted, narrow, down-turned, red-tipped petals. Some taxonomists think it may be a natural hybrid of P. pearcii and P. boisserianum) crossed with P. fischeri. It looked like a Sedenii with down-turned petals...

The Phragmipedium caudatum complex:

This complex had a lot of recent name changes and has now settled down to 5 distinct species if you listen to the splitters (Braem, Ohlund & Quene, 2004) and three species with two varieties, if you listen to the lumpers (Cribb, 2005). All have nodding dorsals and variously long petals.

5

They all agree that the three species Phrag caudatum, Phrag lindenii and Phrag exstaminodium are distinct species. However, Cribb places Phrag wallisii, now renamed Phrag warscewiczianum as a variety of Phrag lindenii. He also feels Phrag popowii is a variety of Phrag exstaminodium. (Do not mix up Phrag warscewiczianum with Phrag warscewiczii, as this latter species is now called Phrag popowii or Phrag exstaminodium var. popowii)

Because the breeding characteristics of the two varieties are different from those of the typical species, the Fischers prefer to go along with the splitters and thus be able to predict breeding outcomes from the name of the cross. Also the lindenii, normal variety and exstaminodum, normal variety, are anything but normal. They are derived from their (normal) varieties, but the laws of priority being what they are, we end up with a close to nonsense situation!

Phrag caudatum has the longest petals of the complex. If the petals do not encounter a solid surface while elongating, they can reach one meter in length.

Phrag. lindenii has three petals and no pouch. There is a third pollinarum on the back of the staminodal shield and therefore these plants are instantly self-pollinating. They obviously survived by this chance mutation in an area where their pollinator is absent.

Phrag exstaminodium as the name implies lacks a staminodial shield and again this species is self-pollinating. In hybrids both it and Phrag popowii do not pass on their dark pouch colour and the petals of their hybrids tend to have “shoulders”.

An example is the cross Phrag Stairway to Heaven (popowii X warscewiczianum). The progeny are light coloured.

Phrag Mini Grande is noteworthy, because the small stature of its Phrag pearcei parent is preserved over the other, the Phrag Grande parent. Since both have dark pouches, the progeny do too.

Trying to get larger red Phrags by using these species does not live up to expectations!

Using Phrag Red Lightning (P. sargentianum X P. popowii –a singularely mis-named cross, since it took 10 years to reach flowering size) and crossing it with Phrag Mem. Dick Clements, ...) gives the very floriferous and nice shiny red Phrag Flash Gordon, but the size is only minimally increased over the Mem Dick Clements.

Noteworthy is the cross of Phrag Beverly Fischer X Grande with the clone shown having charming rose pink and cream flowers with vertically held, spiralling petals.

Phragmipedium kovachii :

How this giant rose pink phrag could have been missed for so long is quite a mystery! As soon as hybridizers saw it they began to hope for huge full and colourful progeny from it and all the roadblocks put in place to stop importation and stripping it completely from its native Peruvian habitat only accomplished the former result!!! Lets hope it will be re-introduced into the wild from cultivated plants.

Now to the less desirable traits of the species:

The species tends to self-pollinate. Therefore it should only be the pollen parent.

It is just as slow to reach blooming size as Paphiopedilum rothschildianum that is a minimum of 6 years! However the hybrids do not inherit that trait.

It takes four months from the formation of the sheath for the flower to open.

The flowers last two weeks and grow the entire time that they are open.

As a result of this continuous growth, the colour thins out in spots and you get the dreaded colour breaks in virtually all flowers of all plants.

Another negative aspect of this growth after opening is that the flower shape changes –not for the better! The flowers are best on day 5 and thereafter the petals start to reflex and twist in a most unattractive way.

Line breeding was started as soon as possible and the Fischers now have the clone ‘Tesoro Morado’ that stays flat, does not have colour breaks and also blooms twice a year! The dorsal and synsepal are held in such a way that they prevent the normal reflexing after day 5. Another good clone is Glen Decker’s ‘Purpliscious’

Naturally they try to use this clone as much as possible in their hybrids and plan to redo many twisted hybrids with this clone and hopefully get nicer results. One such hybrid in need of redoing is Phrag schlimii X Phrag kovachii, Phrag Eumelia Arias. It produces dusty pink flowers

Phrag Fritz Schomburg, Phrag besseae X kovachii looks like a Phrag Don Wimbur on steroids! The besseae contributes colour and the kovachii the size. They even found one clone whose flowers lasted 5 weeks.

6

A similar cross is Phrag Peruflora Cirila Alca, Phrag delassandroi X kovachii. It is not as full as the above cross and the flowers of the clone shown were a light rose pink.

Phrag Suzanne Decker (Phrag Cape Sunset X kovachii) looks great on day two to three and after that- oh dear! Jason plans to redo it with the ‘Tesoro Morado’ clone!

Phrag Alfredo Manrique seems a promising cross that recurves very little –at least in the clones shown! It is Phrag Walter Schomburg X kovachii and most clones are red and have full form.

Photo from AQplus

Phrag Peruflora’s Angel, Phrag. richteri X kovachii represents a skeleton in Peruflora’s closet. The flower picture submitted to get the name registered looks nothing like a kovachii hybrid, but like a Phrag Franz Glanz....

Phrag Andean Tears is quite different. It is a cross of Phrag wallisii (lindenii var. warscewiczianum) and kovachii. The white and pale lilac flowers have frilled down-swept petals. The flowers look massive.

Phrag Glen Decker (Jason Fischer X kovachii) is a nice deep pink –not red. Another clone had luminous light pink flowers of quite round form.

Phrag Haley Decker (St Ouen X kovachii) was illustrated with an intense flat rose pink flower with less of a tendency for colour breaks.

Phrag Suzanne Decker (Cape Sunset X kovachii) is similar to the above, but tends to have a white centre.

Some less exciting crosses: Phrag kovachii X lindleyanum (very curled petals)

Phrag Peruflora’s Saltimbanco (czerwiakowianum X kovachii) is pink and white with long, curled petals.

Phrag Incan Treasure, P. longifolium X kovachii with white and rose pink flowers with curved down petals that have rolled edges.

Phrag La Vingtaine, kovachii X Mem Dick Clements was illustrated with a deep red-pink flower, whose only real fault was a drooping dorsal.

Phrag Peruflora’s Spirit, kovachii X Eric Young, can be variable from nice flat light orange to pale pink , recurved every which way, plus colour breaks!

Phrag Frank Smith (kovachii X Grande) was illustrated with a large pink flower with flat, down and inward curving petals. Quite different!

Culture

Water: Low –solute water is a must. Rain-water, distilled water or water de-ionized by passing through a suitable membrane, are all fine.

Growing media:

1. Many people grow this genus successfully in straight diatomite, which is diatomaceous earth not ground into powder but chopped into chunks. Use medium grade. They are grown semi-hydroponically in a saucer of water and the water is changed every 3-4 days.

The Ebb and Flow Tray method works the best. A bubbler should be put into the water reservoir to make sure the water bathing the roots is highly oxygenated. Change the water in the reservoir(Buckrt) every 2-3 weeks. In the wild the plants experience water seeping past their roots 24 hours per day, but in the Ebb and Flow bench one hour per day is sufficient. Other media that can be used are Aloflor, clay pellets and expanded rock.

If you have problems with blasted buds, you may have to switch to an Ebb and Flow system.

2. The other way is to grow them in bark mix, in pots with holes. Be sure to keep the medium wet from top to bottom.

To the bark add Miracle Grow (for house-plants) 60%

Orchidata bark 20%

Grid-sized diatomite 20%

Add some limestone once per month

Other growing media are :

Rockwool with a natural pH of 7 it lasts a very long time. They use Grodan Grow cubes, which are about ½ centimeter cubes of rockwool

7

New Zealand Sphagum mixed with perlite can work, but plants grown in it may get Erwinia rot.

Temperature: Keep at intermediate temperatures. If kept too cool they rot

Light: Seedlings grow best in low light of 200-400fc

Adults: Give them a 600-700fc peak in the daytime. You might have to use LED lights to stop slow-down of growth when light levels get too low.

For straight Phrag kovachii make sure the pH of the water used is between 6 and 7. Also when the container the pots sit in gets full of algae, scrub it.

Fertilizer:

Orchids Limited uses a 10-10-10 fertilizer

Some Tips:

Pot the plants so the medium the crown sits in is a little higher than the edges of the pot. It keeps the crown drier and prevents rot.

To colchicines- treat a flask the colchicine is left in for 24 hours, then the medium is changed. Handle this chemical with extreme care as it is cancer catalyst.

To be successful in getting a seed pod, make sure your mother plant is mature enough and in excellent health. Otherwise the pod may abort or contain no viable seed or the plant may die.

Phylogeny of Angraecum in Madagascar, by Tahiana Andriananjamanantsoa, transcribed

by Inge Poot from notes supplied by Terry Kennedy and Jean Ikeson

This talk was in the nature of a progress report on Tahiana’s thesis undertaken at the university of Montreal and partially funded by SOOS via the SOOS Conservation Committee.

Madagascar is an island 249 miles off the S-E coast of Africa and it has the distinction of being the fourth largest island in the world, with an area of 228,900 square miles. The prehistoric breakup of the supercontinent Gondwana separated the Madagascar-Antarctica-India landmass from the Africa-South America landmass around 135 million years ago. Madagascar later split from India about 88

million years ago, allowing plants and animals on the island to evolve in complete isolation.

The people inhabiting the island originally came from Indonesia, Malaysia and Africa. The country counts about 20 million people, 70% of them live on 1 dollar a day, and have a gross domestic product of 438 USD (in 2009).

Sources of income are mainly tourism, agriculture (using ancestral methods and practices, such us slash and burn agriculture, pasturage, etc), and mining.

The resources are mismanaged and transparency and good governance are lacking in politics.

Biodiversity is rich for both plants and animals. Talking about biodiversity, Madagascar is known for its rich and unique biodiversity and is considered one of the 34 biodiversity hotspots in the world. It has 14,883 vascular plants, of which the most common are in the genus Pachypodium in the family Didieraceae.

There are over 300 species of birds and 60% of them are endemic (this means that they do not occur elsewhere).

Madagascar is home to about half the world’s 150 species of chameleon. The example shown was the miniature species Brookesia micra a specimen of which looked a bit scared but perched comfortably on the business end of a matchstick!

All 651 species of terrestrial snails are endemic

Over 100 species of fish are found around the island.

Over 100 species of Lemurs call Madagascar “home”. Here our speaker showed an adorable tiny species Microcoebus bertae which looked like a tiny brown bushy-tailed squirrel with huge black eyes. To then see dried lemur meat for sale is quite shocking.

Madagascar is really rich in natural resources. In 2015 the country is expecting to produce 750,000 to 2 million tonnes of ilmenite a year (ilmenite is a magnetic titanium-iron oxide

8

mineral), that’s 42% of the world production.

Angraecum leonis 'Jenny's Moonbeam' CCM-AOS photo from AQplus

Canadian companies are the first in terms of direct investment in mining in the country (Rio Tinto in ilmenite and Sherritt in nickel and cobalt). Saphire is another ore - mined in open pits.

Slash and burn agriculture (tavy) and wild fire (used as a form of protest!) constitute a scourge in Madagascar, responsible for approximately 494,210 acres natural habitat loss every year. Species are being driven to extinction and many are under threat. On top of this, mining and illegal cutting aggravate the situation. As a result, over 80% of the natural habitats are gone, the remaining forest is fragmented and the wild population is endangered. Only 10% of the forest is still continuous and that is a strip all along the east coast

In 2009, more than 50,000 tons of tropical hardwoods were taken from Madagascar’s forests and more than $200 million of questionable money passed hands such as the selling of scarce woods such as rosewood on the black market, while the people of the country received a paltry sum (Randriamalala et al., 2010).

Orchidaceae is the second largest family of vascular plants in Madagascar, with approximately 57 genera and more than 1,200 species. 90% are endemic. When compared to Costa Rica with its approximately 150 genera and about 1500 species this is quite impressive.

An attempt was made in Ranomafana, NP, on the S-E part of Madagascar, to re-introduce artificially propagated species to the wild. 360 seedlings were reintroduced in 2005. About 30% survived so far. Unfortunately the program was abandoned in 2007, when they lost the services of their guide.

The project under way now involves field sampling various, usually inaccessible spots. There were 10 locations sampled in 2007 and 5 more are planned for 2012. GPS was used to fix the exact positions. Local guides had to be used since the terrain was difficult and the weather worse! Cyclones are not a rarity!. So far about 600 samples have been taken, each recorded for posterity with a photograph and its GPS location.

The genus Angraecum belongs in the sub-tribe Angraecinae, which in turn is included in the Vandeae tribe located in the Epidendroideae sub-family. The genus contains over 200 species, of which over 150 are found in Madagascar. Of the 46 African species six are are found in Madagascar as well.

The Vandeae tribe contains 4 sub-tribes and of these the sub-tribe Angraecinae (with 15 genera of 360 species) together with the sub-tribe Aerangidinae (32 genera containing 330 species) are referred to as the Angraecoids. You can tell the two sub-trbes of the Angraecoids apart by the structure of the rostellum (the structure that separates the pollinia from the stigmatic surface) and by the structure of the pollinia. Angraecinae rostellums are pairs of large flaps, while those of Aerangidinae are just one or two skinny teeth. Angraecinae pollinia have short stipes and generally large sticky pads at the end of the stipes(or stems), while Aerangidinae pollinia have long stipes and generally smaller sticky pads (called viscidiums). DNA analysis and the resulting “Cladograms” using two spots on the DNA of the energy carrying organelle showed that the Angraecinae sub-tribe is actually in two fairly strongly separated sections with the subtribe Aerangidinae placed right between the two sections. Therefore the sub-tribes are not a natural division.

The genus Angraecum is monopodial in growth habit (that is it grows upwards, not sideways like a

9

Cymbidium or Cattleya would. The species vary greatly in size, going from the 3cm A. urschinum to the about 100cm A. longicalcor. Like most orchids the inflorescence is a raceme, which means that there is no stem for the individual blossoms on the inflorescence just an elongated ovary. The flower colour is usually white, but can also be green, yellow or ochre. The fowers are spurred with the spur varying from one to 300mm in length for the different species. The number of chromosomes found in the plants is usually 19 pairs, but 21, 23, 24 and 25 also occur. The plants are usually epiphytic (grow on

trees), but some are lithophytic (grow on rocks). They are found in tropical climates at elevations from 0 to 2000 meters. The genus usually uses Moths as pollinators (eg A. sesquipedale is pollinated by the famous Xanthopan moganii praedicta) but some species are bird pollinated such as A .bracteosum which is pollinated by the wren-like Zosterox barbonicus. There is even a species pollinated by crickets: A. cadetii by the cricket Glomeramus orchidophilus. The expectation is that other pollinators will be found with further study.

(To be continued)

A Star is born.

Crystal Star Orchids offers broker service with over 15 top orchid nurseries from Taiwan

and the U.S.A, including:

Ching Hua Orchids, In Charm, Krull Smith, and Sunset Valley.

Our website is up and running. If you have any questions please

feel free to email us at: crystalstarorchids@gmail.com or

call Eric Lee at (905) 478-8398.

10

2011 SOOS Financial Report