orchids and orchidology in central america. 500 ... - lankesteriana.org

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
himself also with the less showy species. “The study
of the collections prepared by Baron von Tuerckheim
in the area of Cobán has made us discover a surprising
number of new species” (Schlechter, 1918: 343).
Among the many types of new species that he
discovered, are the following, described mainly
by Ames and Schlechter: Aspidogyne stictophylla
(Schltr.) Garay (Tuerckheim II 1994), Dichaea
intermedia Ames & Correll (Tuerckheim II 1798),
Dichaea muricatoides Hamer & Garay (Tuerckheim
s.n.), Dichaea tuerckheimii Schltr. (Tuerckheim s.n.),
Dryadella guatemalensis (Schltr.) Luer (Tuerckheim II
490), Dryadella linearifolia (Ames) Luer (Tuerckheim
7784), Encyclia tuerckheimii Schltr. (Tuerckheim 2456
), Epidendrum cerinum Schltr. (Tuerckheim 4179 ),
Epidendrum isomerum Schltr. (Tuerckheim II 167),
Epidendrum mixtum Schltr. (Tuerckheim II 1868),
Epidendrum pseudoramosum Schltr. (Tuerckheim
II 1951), Erythrodes tuerckheimii (Schltr.) Ames
(Tuerckheim 733), Microstylis tuerckheimii Schltr.
(Tuerckheim 1017), Platystele jungermannioides
(Schltr.) Garay (Tuerckheim 698), Scaphyglottis
cuneata Schltr. (Tuerckheim s.n.), Scelochilus
tuerckheimii Schltr. (Tuerckheim II-1919), Stelis
fulva Schltr. (Tuerckheim 4064), Stelis gracilis
Ames (Tuerckheim 7681), and Stelis rubens, Schltr.
(Tuerckheim II 1061). Platystele jungermannioides
is one of his most interesting collections, being
reputedly the smallest orchid in the world. He is also
mentioned in relation to the discovery of Catlleya
bowringiana Veitch: “A planter named Turkheim
[sic] sent it from British Honduras to Mr. Bowring
of Forest Farm, Windsor, in 1884” (Boyle, 1901:
37). Von Tuerckheim was also interested in many
other plants families, and many new species were
described and dedicated to him, such as: Coccobola
tuerckheimii Donn. Sm. (Polygonaceae), Panicum
tuerckheimii Hackel (Poaceae), Lyonia tuerckheimii
Urb. (Ericaceae), Phyllanthus tuerckheimii G.L.
Webster (Euphorbiaceae), Phaseolus tuerckheimii
Donn. Sm. (Fabaceae), and Columnea tuerckheimii
Sprague (Gesneriaceae). Von Tuerckheim met briefly
Bernoulli, before the Swiss went on his last expedition
to the region of Petén in 1877.
The city of Cobán (Fig. 41C) and the department
of Alta Verapaz occupy a special place in the history
of Guatemalan orchidology, similar to that of San
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Ramón in Costa Rica. With its very humid climate
(Cobán in the language of the Q´eqchi’ means
“between rainfalls”) the region offers an enormous
diversity of orchids and has traditionally been the
birthplace of the best nurseries in the country. Cobán
was founded on August 14, 1543 by Dominican friars
and Emperor Charles V named her ‘Imperial City’.
The following species of orchids were dedicated to
the city: Jacquiniella cobanensis (Ames & Schltr.)
Dressler, Maxillaria cobanensis Schltr., Pleurothallis
cobanensis Schltr., and Spiranthes cobanensis Schltr.
The types of the first three were collected by von
Tuerckheim. The fourth was collected by Friedrich
Carl Lehmann, of whom we will talk shortly.
The demand for orchids during the last quarter of the
century escalated and the collection of plants from the
wild and their shipment back to Britain (and subsequently
to the rest of Europe) became a major industry. The time
was right for Henry Frederick Conrad Sander (1847-
1920) to set up business as an importer and commercial
grower of orchids. Sander faced stiff opposition from
already well-established firms, such as James Veitch,
Hugh Low, William Bull and others, and he teetered
on the brink of bankruptcy on several occasions. But
eventually Sander (later Sander and Sons) became the
largest orchid establishment in Europe.
Frederick Sander (Fig. 41D) was born in Bremen
(Germany) but moved to England at age 16. Marriage
in 1870 to Elizabeth Fearnley, daughter of a rich printer
was the catalyst for Sander’s rise to fame, as she provided
him with the funds to enter business by purchasing a
seed business at Saint Albans, a short distance northwest
of London. He soon entered into a profitable
arrangement with the Czech orchid collector Benedict
Roezl and they prospered together until Roezl died in
1884. More and more collectors were employed until
at one point he had 23 ‘travelers’ collecting orchids for
him throughout the world. Several of them (Oversluys,
Falkenberg, Forget, etc.) collected for Sanders in our
region. The supply of plants of all kinds grew to such an
extent that Sander found it necessary to set up a second
nursery in Bruges (Belgium), where 250 glass-houses
were eventually constructed, of which 50 were used
to house orchids. Some idea of the scale of Sander’s
operations can be gained from his claim that he imported
more than one million plants of just one orchid species,
Dendrobium phalaenopsis var. schroederiana, from
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.