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

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
He collected several orchids, among which we can
find Catasetum bicolor Klotzsch, Chondrorhyncha
lipscombiae Rolfe, and Trigonidium egertonianum
Batem. Standley dedicated to him several species
in other plant families, such as Eugeniea zetekiana
in the Myrtaceae and Saurauia zetekiana in the
Actinidiaceae.
Other American collectors, 1900-1930. Other great
North American institutions were also of importance
for the biological exploration of Central America
during the first decades of the XX century. Among
them are the New York Botanical Garden, the U. S.
National Museum and the Field Museum of Natural
History of Chicago.
Robert Statham Williams (1859-1945) was a selfeducated
naturalist who began his botanical collections
in the mining fields of Alaska during the years of
1898 and 1899. A short time later, Williams came to
the New York Botanical Garden with a position as
an assistant. In 1901 he was sent by the Garden to
South America, returning with a large collection of
plants from Bolivia and Peru. Schlechter wrote about
his collections in Bolivia: “The few orchids which I
have seen are proof that the collection must contain
many interesting things” (Schlechter, 1922b: 13). In
1903 he was sent to the Philippines and he made his
last excursion in the first months of 1908, to Panama,
where he collected in the region of Penonomé and
the eastern provinces (Standley, 1928: 45-46). Ames
described interesting new species of orchids among his
collections in Panama: Oncidium ebrachiatum Ames
& C. Schweinfurth (Williams 975), Pleurothallis
canae Ames (Williams 971), Pleurothallis praegrandis
Ames (Williams 973), Pleurothallis williamsii Ames
(Williams 976), Stelis parvibracteata Ames (Williams
s.n.), and Stelis williamsii Ames (Williams 970).
Ellsworth Paine Killip (1890-1968) (Fig. 52D),
a botanist, was raised in the State of New York
and graduated from Rochester University in 1911.
From 1919 he was part of the staff of the U. S.
National Museum, becoming head curator in 1946,
after Maxon’s retirement. Killip specialized in the
taxonomy of South American plants and traveled
several times to Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Brazil,
Argentina, Chile and the Antilles. He collected
on several occasions together with Maxon and
165
Standley. He lived in Balboa from September 1917
to May 1918, and during this time he made botanical
collections to the east of Panama City. In the spring
of 1922, while on his return from Colombia, he
prepared another collection of plants in the area
(Standley, 1938: 46-47). During his last excursion
to Panama he collected some plants in Barro
Colorado (1948). Killip made numerous collections
of orchids from which some new species were
described: Camaridium grandiflorum Ames (Killip
3565, Panama), Erythrodes killipii Ames (Killip
3561, Panama), Habenaria patentiloba Ames (Killip
3124, Panama), Ornithocephalus lanuginosus Ames
(Killip 3314, Panama), Pleurothallis falcatiloba
Ames (Killip 3540, Panama), Pleurothallis killipii
Garay, and Scaphyglottis laevilabia Ames (Killip
3113, Panama). Other species were dedicated to him,
such as Elleanthus killipii Garay and Epidendrum
killipii Hágsater & L. Sánchez Saldaña. In 1929
Killip worked for a period of time in Madrid, where
he opened the old boxes containing the collections
of the Royal Botanical Expedition to New Granada
of José Celestino Mutis (1783-1808), until then
forgotten and never studied. His ‘rediscovery’ led to
the distribution of parts of the collections to different
museums around the world and to a renewed interest
in the work of Mutis.
Leslie Alva Kenoyer (1883 - ) came to Panama
in 1927 and worked for some time at Barro Colorado,
where he made important studies and published an
important work on the ecology of the tropical rain
forest of Barro Colorado. During his stay on the island
he collected some 700 plants, that were the base
for the publication of a supplement to the flora that
Standley had previously published in 1927 (Kenoyer
& Standley, 1929). He collected some orchids,
such as Habenaria alata Hook. (Kenoyer 249) and
Scaphyglottis longicaulis S. Wats. (Kenoyer 251).
Standley dedicated to him Solanum kenoyeri, in the
Solanaceae.
Although important collections were made in
Panama during the first three decades of the XX century,
“until 1930 the collectors who came to Panama visited
only a relatively small portion of the country and, with
the notable exception of Henri Pittier, most collected in
a relatively restricted area, many of them never leaving
the region of the isthmus” (Croat, 1978: 49-50).
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.