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

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
also a friend of Otón Jiménez, who remembers how don
Guillermo helped him during one of Adolphe Tonduz’
‘alcoholic journeys’: “Don Anastasio Alfaro, director of
the National Museum, asked me to bring back Tonduz
[who was in San Ramón], to avoid sanctioning him for
abandoning his duties. A Roman enterprise! I had to ask
the Political Chief of San Ramón, Guillermo Acosta
Piepper, for help, and through his paternal intervention
I managed to put him on a horse and in a ten-hour
journey, step by step, we reached Grecia and from there,
in another similar journey, Alajuela. It was then easy for
me to bring him to the house of my neighbor, David
Mora” (Jiménez, 1971: 63).
It is sad that the three emblematic species which
Schlechter dedicated to the Costa Rican collectors of
the first years of the XX century: Amparoa, Brenesia
y Acostaea costaricensis have disappeared, by the
inexorable rules of botanical nomenclature, having been
converted in synonyms of Rhynchostele beloglossa,
Pleurothallis johnsonii and Specklinia mirifica. To the
town of San Ramón de Alajuela, from where he obtained
so much material during many years, Schlechter
dedicated the genus Ramonia, with one single species:
Ramonia pulchella (“the beautiful”), that was later
transferred to Scaphyglottis. From the region around
San Ramón Schlechter said that it was an “Eldorado for
the orchid collectors” (Schlechter, 1923).
Tonduz was the great intermediary between
Schlechter and those who collected in Costa Rica
during the first years of the last century. This seems to
have been the case of the relation between Schlechter
and the exceptional orchid collections made between
the years of 1908 and 1910 by the brothers Alexander
C. and Alfred Brade, German nationals who had
established themselves in Costa Rica.
Alexander Curt Brade (1881-1971) (Fig. 49B), by
profession an architect, was the driving force behind
those collections. Alexander Curt came to Costa
Rica in 1908 invited by his brother but stayed only
for a short time, traveling in August of 1910 Brazil,
where he reached glory as one of South America’s
greatest orchidologists. His collection of the type
of Epidendrum pinniferum C. Schweinfurth (A. C.
Brade 335, may 1936) is however evidence that Brade
returned at some point to Costa Rica, probably to visit
his brother. During his stay in Costa Rica, the brothers
explored the surroundings of San José, the mountains
151
of Tablazo, Candelaria, Carpintera and the natural
paradise of La Palma. Longer trips followed to the
Miravalles volcano, the Barva and to the Atlantic Coast.
The great variety of ferns drew Alexander’s interest,
and influenced by the writings of several European
specialists he started to study them, discovering
over 60 species new to science, described by Christ,
Rosenstock and Hieronymus (Pabst, 1967: 161). In the
meantime, his brother Alfred dedicated himself almost
exclusively to orchids. Guido Pabst (1914-1980), the
great Brazilian orchidologist, founded in 1958 the
‘Herbario Bradeanum’ in Rio de Janeiro and began
in 1969 the publication of the journal Bradea, thus
honoring the name of who had been his teacher for
more than thirty years.
Alfred Brade (1867-1955) had arrived at Puerto
Limón in 1893 and after two years of work in the
banana plantations of the Atlantic region found a
position in the nurseries of Julian Carmiol in San José.
With Carmiol he shared his enthusiasm for Botany and
he dedicated himself for years to explore all accessible
regions in the country. After several years he made
himself independent from Carmiol and founded the
Brade Nurseries (Jiménes, 1957: 2). With the years he
dedicated himself more and more to horticulture and
finally abandoned botanical exploration completely.
He was however “famously generous, and his personal
garden was in many ways more of a botanical garden
than a commercial enterprise” (Grayum et al.,
2004: 14). Rudolf Schlechter, in his Additamenta
ad Orchideologiam Costaricensem dedicated an
entire chapter to the collections that he had received
from the Brade brothers: Orchidaceae Bradeanae
Costaricenses (Schlechter, 1923). Schlechter
described there over 50 new species for Costa Rica,
a number that gives us an idea of the importance of
those collections. Schlechter praised the great quality
and excellent preparation of the Brade’s herbarium
specimens and called the collection “a milestone in
the botanical exploration of the country ”(Markgraf,
1973: 4). Among the many new species discovered by
the Brades we find: Habenaria irazuensis Schltr. (A. u.
C. Brade 1069), Lepanthes blephariglossa Schltr. (C.
Brade s.n.), Lepanthes bradei Schltr. (C. Brade s.n.),
Osmoglossum convallarioides Schltr. (A. & C. Brade
1292), Pleurothallis schulzeana Schltr. (C. Brade s.n.),
Pogonia nitida Schltr. (C. Brade s.n.), Sarcoglottis
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.