Pollenatrix

Online Orchid Drama Eclipses Reality TV...

George Norris, a crusty old orchid grower from Texas, has yet again found himself squarely in the sights of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as well as the Department of Homeland Security.

George, along with his business associate Peruvian grower Manuel Arias-Silver, is charged with conspiracy to smuggle endangered phragmipediums (orchids) into the U.S. Since Manuel is one of only three growers to have been given permission by the Peruvian government to artificially propagate the newly discovered phragmipedium Kovachii, it appears that the U.S. government has singled out the pair for special attention over suspicions that this is the species they were smuggling. There appears to be little evidence of this, though it is likely the pair were taking some shortcuts on paperwork because of the challenges of importing other, legally propagated species, into the U.S.

In the orchid world, the CITES treaty is almost universally denounced; the charge is that it does nothing to stop habitat destruction, and actually encourages illegal smuggling of wild-collected plants because the regulations make it so difficult to trade in artifically-propagated specimens.

George originally found himself in his government's crosshairs last year, after sending out a newsletter to his customers mentioning the Peruvian government's decision to allow three respected Peruvian growers to propogate the orchids, raising the possibility that they would be available legally for sale in the United States within the next few years. Considering that his information came directly from Manuel, with whom he had done business many times, the newsletter reference was not unreasonable. However, Eric Christenson, the taxonomist who was still severely disgruntled over losing the race to name the species, was one of the recipients of the newsletter. He forwarded the message on to the F&WS suggesting they investigate the "rumours". A couple of months later, the F&WS raided George Norris' greenhouse. Then, Manuel was arrested by authorities on his way to a major international orchid show in Miami on March 5th. The F&WS, strongly criticised by the orchid community for their heavy-handed tactics, released the contents of private email they secretly intercepted between the two men to the media, in an apparent attempt to garner favourable public opinion.

Support continues to be strong for George and Manuel, but the situation looks grim for the two men. An outspoken and "patriotic American", George's growing sense of betrayal and disillusionment with his beloved right-wing government has been painful to behold. The obvious stress is taking it's toll, resulting in a particularly spectacular flame-war on the Orchid Guide Digest list between Eric Christenson ("I will begin immediate legal action against [the Orchid Digest List] for allowing this filth on your website") and George Norris (accusing Eric of hot air and eating too many Krispy Kremes). It's an online version of the worst kind of reality TV, kind of like watching a train wreck in slow-motion.

Then, just when the name-calling and threats were threatening to take over the entire tone of discussion, along comes Oliver Sparrow to the rescue, like the orchid super-hero he is....

An Orchid Super-Hero Responds....

In the midst of the Orchid Guide Forum dust-up, the extraordinary Oliver Sparrow responds with dizzying logic and sanity to frenzied finger-pointing over the stripping of Phrag. Kovachii from the wild:

Shame on the Peruvian government! Shame on the collectors! When are they going to pay?? What they did is far worse then what Selby did. Why is there no call for their collective heads (including the Peruvian officials who are complicit in their lack of action)?

Oliver's response:

I carry no torch for the Peruvian government, but I happen to have a team in Peru writing a guide book to its wild places, so we do have some insight. To quote our introduction:

"...A more detailed assessment shows how extraordinarily diverse Peru actually is. International convention divides the world into various types of ecosystem. There are, altogether, just over a hundred of these that are recognised by science. With only minor straining, no less than 84 of these can be found in Peru!

Recent studies of the World's biodiversity hot-spots place at least five of these in Peru. In particular, the Tambopata and Manu regions possess two of the most diverse flora and fauna forests in the world.The Pongo de Mainique Canyon on the Urubamba River is alleged to be the most biodiverse area on Earth's surface. It is, however, a relatively accessible area and so has been studied with more intensity than the backwoods. There may well be more diverse regions elsewhere. [...]

Peru has the fourth largest expanse of primary forest in the world. As with most primary tropical forests, this is extremely species-rich, with up to two hundred different kinds of large tree cramming themselves into a hectare of forest. [...] Peru and Ecuador are the heartland of a range of mist-forest and other orchid genera. The ceja de selva [montane forest] is particularly rich in these plants in areas where rock breaks forest into a myriad of patches. However, the are epiphytic orchids growing to 3800m, probably a world record. At least two species of cactus grow under snow cover at 4500m. There is an extraordinary diversity of medicinal plants, all readily available from market stalls. At least five narcotic plants grow in Peru - the coca shrub, the three plants used in the ayahuasca brew, the hallucinogen cactus known as el cactus de San Pedro - and probably many more. "

My point - that there is a lot to protect. Peru has around 30 reserves, parks and the like, many essentially abandoned for want of funds. I visited the San Martin centre last year, and found the staff both unpaid and without fuel to patrol their area. Set against this, the drugs industry was still very active in the area.

But should Peru not fund its wildlife protection better? Average per capita income buys what about $4500 buys in the US, per annum. That puts it on a par with nations such as the following: Albania Algeria Cuba Egypt Guatemala Honduras Iran Jordan Morocco Romania.

The country is recovering from the disasters of the 1983-94 period, when the war against the Sendero and economic mismanagement brought the country to deep crisis. There was a further crisis of climate and institutions at the turn of the century and there are still many millions of needy people, displaced into shack-cities on the coastal desert, malfunctioning industry and problems of collecting due taxes.

Excuse the length of this. The point that I want to get across is that priorities in such nations are extremely focused, and a minor botanical detail cannot expect much attention. Equally, the lesson to take from this is that what is tractable to conservation in low income countries is, at best, habitats and not species. Something which lunatic foreigners will pay a year's income to acquire, and which will fit into a small suitcase, is virtually impossible to protect, notably in a nation which has a vast industry entrained in shipping illegal cocaine paste (and now opium balls) North. Better by far manage this by making the object of desire - plant, parrot or shell - available to collector gluttony through breeding programs, legal export and so forth. Better to focus state efforts on keeping habitats from being logged, farmed or simply trashed through general erosion.

_____________________________________
Oliver Sparrow

Here Lies Jacob Orchidgrower...

I love Aaron J. Hicks' response to a question posed on the Native Orchid Conference list about re-introducing orchids using seed that does not come from the local area:

"...what is the concern with integrating with local populations? I guess my question is, what does "local" mean? Same county, same state, same acre?"

Aaron replies:

I would define "local" as populations that are reasonably capable of exchanging genetic material in the absence of human interference. ...as you increase the distance, the probability of exchange drops dramatically. So, this is not to say that a seed from a given cypripedium might not end up germinating 100 miles away, but the chances are slim.

Reasonably, as these plants are not capable of producing any tangible products, the only objections that I can think of would be that this sort of thing runs the risk of bewildering molecular phylogenists in the future. ("Bert, we just found identical genes in isolates of Cypripedium californicum from Oregon and Michigan. That hangs it- I quit!") There are also concerns about contamination of the gene pool, reduction of genetic diversity, preservation of subspecies, that sort of thing. After all, evolution occurs more quickly in small, isolated populations. Still, I don't think there is a significant risk of going to the grave with "Here Lies Jacob Orchidgrower, who singlehandedly prevented the birth of a new species. Nice going, Jacob" as their epitaph.

Now, if you want to throw some REAL mud into your soda, we have to go back a few years while glaciers were still roaming the country (before the great North American Anti-Glaciation Act of 13,000 BC), when just about everything was covered with a sheet of ice as thick as Paris Hilton's skull. After the retreat of the glaciers, it's a fair guess that there wasn't much of anything alive that didn't have legs for some time. Whether this makes for a good argument as to whether we should go about shuffling the genes is open to discussion.

All these considerations are theoretical. To the best of my knowledge, nobody's ever come up with cogent arguments as to why it's *bad* to re-introduce extirpated species (at least those that are innocuous and benign, like orchids- let's just skip the whole wolf thing for now, shall we?), and I'd say the benefits outweigh the detractions.

Aaron J. Hicks

Pugnacious when riled...

Indoor garden equipment offers many multi-purpose utensils, particularly for pet owners on muddy spring days. For example, the small pruning shears are handy for excising burrs from the fur of Jake's feathery hind quarters, and the 50ft curly hose (the one that stretches all the way outdoors onto the deck) is particularly useful when attached to the warm water faucet of the kitchen sink on a cold day. I know what you're thinking... shame on you. I use it to spray off all the mud and gunk he picks up at the park. Otherwise, it dries and falls off him, leaving me to sweep up the sand and dirt dunes that accumulate wherever he happens to lay down -- including the bed. I pray that this "Spring" thing is over soon.

The park is supposed to be a place for Jake to work off steam, and for me to relax while I obediently throw the frisbee for him. I should have known that today wouldn't be that kind of day the moment I stepped out of the car; the field was ankle-deep in mud, and the wind was howling. It may be spring, but even bundled up in a hooded parka and winter mitts, the wind was bitterly cold. It brought new meaning to the expression, "chill out". How on earth could the ground not be frozen in this weather?

An adolescent German Shepherd ran over to worry Jake as he fetched the frisbee, and as Jake tired I could see that the young dog was determined to beat him to it on the next toss. Willing but wary to include the dog in the game, I asked the stylish young woman who followed if her dog would bring the frisbee back if he actually got hold of it. Let me take a moment to say that I have spent many hours in parks and green spaces watching dogs bounce away with my $20 floppy frisbee and waiting while their owners chased them round and round, fruitlessly trying to get it back. My tolerance for people who let their unschooled dogs off leashes in crowded urban areas is already low, but today, it was as far below zero as the wind chill factor. It seemed a reasonable request.

The woman, who made no move to retrieve her dog and looked ready to settle in to watch her dog chase my frisbee, responded with an inane smile and an, "oh, I'm starting to teach him how to do that". Great, I thought. I politely asked her if she would take him back to the other end of the park so that I could continue to play fetch with my dog. Her indignant and haughty response caught me off guard: "WHAT? He'll run wherever he wants to, how do you expect me to keep him away?! You mean you want me to put him on a LEASH???".

I was speechless (uncharacteristic, I admit), and mumbled that I would take my dog to the other end. I turned my back on her, and made my way to the other side of the (large) park with Jake. I was relieved when I spotted her walking in the opposite direction. When we were what seemed to be a safe distance away, I resumed throwing the frisbee for Jake. Within seconds the young German Shepherd was back, it's owner a dot in the distance. I called out to her, "Yes, please put him on a leash!". She didn't appear to hear me as she walked closer, and I yelled louder, "I think you should put him on a leash now!". Apparently she heard me the second time, because she had worked herself into a high dudgeon by the time she reached me. She stopped in front of me and yelled, "if you don't want your dog mixing with other dogs don't bring him to the park -- leave him in the back yard!!".

That did it. At this point, the only steam being worked off was coming out of my ears (like any good Canadian, I may *look* nice - and I am -- but "pugnacious when riled" is my secret middle name). The woman launched into a spirited (and loud) offence, but by the time I finished verbally beating on her, she was desperate to get her dog and get away from me. The dog took her efforts to grab him as a big game and refused to be caught, giving me ample opportunity to berate her for being an irresponsible dog owner and for being "one of those people who spoil it for everyone else". By the time I caught her dog and handed it over to her (with a final "you should be ashamed of yourself"), her humiliation was complete and she was literally in tears. I was heartless. I said, "cry all you want now, but you'll really have something to cry about when your dog runs into the road and gets hit by a car. What were you thinking to let him off leash when he won't even come when he's called??". I relented a bit, and continued a bit more gently, "There are dog obedience classes you could take at High Park". She didn't stick around for the details, and high-tailed it out with her unruly dog, snuffling all the way. Yeah, I'm a hard-ass. I didn't spend a full year investing time and money training my dog to take guff from nitwits. My dog may be obedient, but dogs don't come that way, people.

Jake and I finished our game unharassed, and made our way back to the car. It was so cold that he trailed muddy icicles from his underbelly and legs, and all that was left of them by the time we got home were black puddles all over the back seat. I hosed the rest off on the deck with warm water from the 50 foot curly hose, and once back indoors, watered the plants for good measure.

There's nothing quite like a heated exchange on a cold afternoon.

Burpee's Seeds Cover Gallery

Burpee's Seeds has published images of its catalogue covers dating back to 1884. They are gorgeous.