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Fenland Orchid Society |
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Newsletters |
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How Confused can you Get?
Judging of the Show Table. At the A.G.M. during the presentation of the show table trophies, a query was raised relating to the names of past winners engraved on the trophies, and that the practice appeared to have been abandoned over the past 10 years. I gave a very brief explanation for this change of practice, but with so many new members in the society it might be of interest if a more detailed explanation were given, so here goes. At the time that the society was formed it was felt that a members show table should be an integral part of every meeting, and that these plants should be judged, leading to some form of annual award. At that time we were very much led by the proprietor of a fairly large orchid nursery situated in Terrington St Clements. He suggested that in common with most other societies the judging should be a points based system, aligned to the method used for judging ‘shows’. Thus a Show Table officer was appointed, and at each meeting two or three members were coerced to act as judges. Now the points system is broken into three sections with approximately 50% of the points awarded for plant culture, 40% for floriferousness, and 10% for presentation. I should also add that plants must have been grown by the member for at least 6 months, and be properly labelled, and without the presence of live stock. Personally I quite like this points system, particularly with the emphasis on culture, this surely should be what our hobby is all about. However to operate this system it does require those persons acting as judges to have a fair amount of experience, bearing in mind the vast array of different genera that may be on the show table at each meeting. At times I’m afraid this caused a few problems. Similarly whilst only rare, it is embarrassing to all concerned when a plant is found to have bugs on it. In hindsight I feel that perhaps we tried too hard to do the right thing. Changing track just for a moment, I feel it worthwhile mentioning that one of our early speakers had two very nice shields made which he presented to us as Show table trophies. Since then we have had a number of other trophies presented to us. Whatever the reason we occasionally suffered a few murmurings within the membership, which led us to abandon the points system and move on to our current method of judging the show table. I would also mention here that at one period we also attempted to overcome what was perceived as an unfair advantage between experienced growers and those new to orchids and a Novices table was introduced. The winner of this trophy would then have to compete on the main table thereafter. Whilst this seemed to be a good idea at the time, it fell down a bit after a few years when we only had one member eligible to enter plants on the Novices table. No prizes for guessing the winner that year. I hope this has given a little idea of the show table history and a few of the problems which the committee have tried to overcome.
Ken.
A DELIGHTFULL LOOK AT PAPHS
Our guest speaker Robin McDonald through the use of modern technology explained Paphs using digital projection. Robin began by saying how at home she felt because of knowing by name so many of the members and asked did we have honorable members though it would be a long way for her to come for a meeting. Explaining how as editor of a journal she got interested in Paphs though not a writer of the articles she got to know about them from the experts who did make contributions to the magazine. The word Orchis is assumed to have been coined about 4 years BC. The Greek for the similarities with gentlemen’s genitalia. Robin touched on a bit of Greek mythology making references to mythology and how certain events are supposed to have happened. Orchid hunters found some 25% of their plants in temperate areas and then tried to resolve if they were similar or the same as the other 75% from all other areas. In 1818 RAFFINESS published a work on the classification of the cypripedium, Phragmipedium, Paphiopedilum but it was not accepted by the orchid world and fell into no more use than scrap paper. Rolph decided that selenipedium, Phragmipedium, cypripedium, and Paphiopedilum could breed but nothing was proven within this genus.
Modern DNA is not fully accepted as proven as the plants are too young in their overall cycle plus the eminent Philip Cribb is quoted as saying "there is no scientific value in work done pre century" he is of the opinion that botany rules should apply and so the botanist and the taxonomist continue to argue their case. So a work once reduced to scrap paper is now to be re-assessed as too its validity.Taxa oriented people look to other features within a genus and so express differing views so as Robin said she was no botanist so would speak from a taxanomic view.
In 1996 Braem did a re-classification as being Northern Hemisphere ---criosanthes ASIA---Paphiopedilum MEXICO --mexipedilum SOUTH AMERICA---Phragmipedium. The cypripedium having about 45 species such as cypripedium calceolus and being variable as both lithophytic and terrestrial.
Paphiopedilum --about 78 species containing 2 of the newer species found last year. The sub-genus---parvisepalum of which some were found in the 1970s/1980s. With Paphiopedilum as the type species the sub-genus has variants and becomes complicated.
Robin through pictures on the screen was easily able to demonstrate the related classifications and show beautiful pictures of plants within these classes. Where plants had been crossed Robin was pointing out the likenesses of the parents be it in the lip or petals or even the marking. Distinctive features of Charlesworthii or Fairianum were carried across to the new hybrid.
Henryanum can be variable, Drurii is now being used for hybridising. Explaining classes Robin said of Paphiopedilum there was the ---species Primary hybrid X 2 species Novelty ----- specie X hybrid Complex hybrid --- who knows?
Robin moved to Phragmipedium of which there are about 15 specie mainly from South America, tending to grow on tidal river banks so are always wet at the roots. The tide twice a day means they are flooded then drained but always wet a point Robin made to those growing these plants. Robin also made the point of how Paphiopedilum differ by spreading their roots through leaf litter tending to grow on and not in it. The mottled leaved plants grew low and in more shade then the plain green leaf type which grew with more light but not direct sunlight.
Questions were few as Robin had through the program given relevant facts all illustrated with some stunning pictures.
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June 09 Abridged |
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Odont. Golden Rialto X Eric Young |
