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ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
After Schlechter’s death, his wife Alexandra continued
with this work. Schlechter dedicated to her, a short
time before his death, the genus Sobennikkoffia Schltr.,
from Madagascar (1925) 34 .
Hans Sydow (1879-1946) was a bank employee and
amateur botanist, who collected in Africa for the Berlin
Museum (ca. 1912). Ames mentioned that he had
been sent by Schlechter to Costa Rica in his letters to
Charles H. Lankester, but there is no evidence that he
ever collected orchids. We know however that Sydow
visited Costa Rica through several publications, in
which he describes his collections of fungi (which
where his specialty), based greatly on collections
prepared by Alberto Ml. Brenes, of whom we will talk
later.
Oakes Ames
“I am afraid that my boyish enthusiasm
must seem to you inordinately intense, but I
take courage in the thought that you have
experienced similar enthusiasm among those
fluttering things that seem to rival the orchids
in beauty or color-patterns. The collector’s
spirit, whether the hobby centers in plants
or animals is specifically the same and the
victims of it understand each other.”
(Letter from Oakes Ames to
Charles H. Lankester, August 24,1923)
Oakes Ames (1874-1950) (Fig. 46A), son of a
cultivated and wealthy family in New England,
graduated from Harvard University in 1899 and was
named shortly afterwards director of its Botanical
Museum. He was Schlechter’s main competitor during
the last two decades of the life of the great German
scientist and at the same time his friend and admirer.
During his whole career, Ames maintained a great
interest in the Orchidaceae, dedicating his free time
completely to the taxonomic study of this family. After
Schlechter’s death he became the world’s foremost
authority in orchidology. Married to Blanche Ames, he
had in his wife an excellent illustrator whose drawings
enriched many of Ames’ publications. “Seldom in
botanical history have science and art been so happily
and fruitfully joined” (Mangelsdorf, 1948: xv).
143
Although he dedicated himself initially to the orchids
of Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, he soon
became interested in the species of the American tropics.
In 1905 Ames began the publication of Orchidaceae:
Illustrations and Studies of the Family Orchidaceae,
in seven volumes. It is in volume II (1908) where he
described the first species of Central America, all based
on specimens distributed by J. Donnell-Smith, collected
by William Nelson and Hans von Tuerckheim in
Chiapas and Guatemala, or by R. S. Williams in Panama:
Epipactis dolabripetala Ames (Nelson 3211 – Chiapas),
Malaxis macrantha Ames (Nelson 3124 – Chiapas),
Masdevallia tubuliflora Ames (von Tuerckheim 512
– Guatemala). Masdevallia tuerckheimii Ames (von
Tuerckheim 464 – Guatemala), Physurus polygonatus
Ames (von Tuerckheim 7678 – Guatemala), Physurus
purpureus Ames (von Tuerckheim 8000 – Guatemala),
Physurus venustulus Ames (von Tuerckheim 8591
– Guatemala), Pleurothallis hastata Ames (von
Tuerckheim 501– Guatemala), Pleurothallis repens
Ames (von Tuerckheim s.n.– Guatemala), and Stelis
williamsii Ames (Williams 970 - Panama). Thus Ames
entered into the world the orchids in Central America,
only two years after Schlechter described the first
orchids from this region.
In one of his fundamental works, Schedulae
Orchidianae, published in ten fascicles between
1922 and 1930 with the collaboration of Charles
Schweinfurth (who was his disciple and friend for over
35 years), Ames described numerous new species for
Central America. Years later, in 1936, Ames published
(again with the collaboration of Schweinfurth) The
genus Epidendrum in the United States and Middle
America, a work in which we find again many new
species of our region. Together with Donovan S.
Correll he prepared an extensive work on the orchids of
Guatemala, that was published in three parts between
1952 and 1956. Finally, in the numerous publications
of Paul C. Standley related to the flora of Central
America, Ames authored, without exception, the list of
orchids for each country.
In 1922 he began his relationship with Charles H.
Lankester, an English naturalist who lived in Costa
Rica, which bore many fruits and lasted until Ames’
death. The first contact with Lankester became a
34 Alexandra Vasilevna Sobennikoff, the daughter of a Russian tea Merchant, had married Schlechter in 1910. They had two
daughters, Alexandra and Julia.
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.