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

ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
1938) (Fig. 53D), was born in Hamburg and arrived
in Costa Rica on board of the steamer “Reventazón”,
of the United Fruit Company’s Great White Fleet
in October 1909, having graduated with honors
as a mechanical engineer a few years earlier. After
exploring the whole country and having formed a
family, Nevermann acquired in 1918 a farm which he
called ‘Hamburgo’, in El Cairo de Siquirres, in the
Atlantic region of Costa Rica. While investigating the
insects that attacked his banana plantations, an interest
arose in Nevermann by which he became not only
one of Costa Rica’s most important entomologists,
but a world authority on this subject. The call by the
German government after World War I to all German
citizens living abroad to help refurbish the collections
of the German museums that had been destroyed
was followed by Nevermann, who with increasing
frequency sent his insect collections to Germany. In
these years he established close relations with Berlin’s
Museum and Botanical Garden. But Nevermann
“not only sent insects but also plants. There is a
beautiful white orchid, Coryanthes nevermannii,
which we owe to him” (Anonymous, 1938: 341). This
reference is curious because there is no record of an
epithet ‘nevermannii’ in the international registers
of botanical nomenclature. The answer to this riddle
can be found in a letter by Rudolf Schlechter to
Nevermann dated May 8, 1925: “The two orchids
which were sent to me interested me vividly. The
double inflorescence with the big pendent flowers
is a new species of Coryanthes, which I will soon
describe as Coryanthes nevermannii Schltr. It is the
first species of Coryanthes that until now I have
known from Costa Rica. It is for me a special pleasure
to dedicate this plant to you. Not smaller interest
raised the slender-leaved Vanilla. This one also has
not yet received a name. It will carry your name as
Vanilla nevermannii Schltr.” (Letter from Schlechter
to Nevermann, May 8, 1925). Schlechter died six
months later, in November 1925, and the species
dedicated to Nevermann were never published. When
in 1943 Schlechter’s herbarium was consumed by
the bombs, all evidences of Nevermann’s collections
disappeared. Thus we will never know for sure
which species correspond to Coryanthes and Vanilla
nevermannii. Last mentioned was Coryanthes
nevermannii by Charles Lankester in his manuscript
171
Costa Rican Orchids, when he writes about the
orchids of the Atlantic coast of Costa Rica: “Another
500 feet of elevation brings Stanhopea ecornuta,
Aspasia epidendroides and rarities like Coryanthes
nevermannii into the picture, …” (Lankester, 1944:
16). and in a letter to Ames from 1928: “Coryanthes
nevermannii - I cannot find publication of this name,
but Nevermann certainly told me Schlechter had
dedicated it to him. I … will write to Nevermann
for confirmation” (Letter from Lankester to Ames,
December 4, 1928).
Schlechter had previously described a new
orchid species based on a collection by Nevermann:
Gongora unicolor Schltr. (Las Mercedes, Ebene
von Limon - Nevermann, im November 1921) and
mentioned another of his collections: Trichocentrum
brenesii Schltr. (Nevermann s.n., without indication
of locality).
In 1936 Nevermann took over the Chair of
Entomology at the National School of Agriculture.
A short time later he died in an unfortunate accident.
During the night of June 30, 1938, while studying the
nocturnal behavior of a species of ant, he was shot by
the son of a neighbor who mistook him for an intruder.
He died three days later in the United Fruit Company’s
hospital in Puerto Limón and his remains were buried
in the Lutheran Cemetery of San José (Anonymous,
1938: 334). Standley visited Nevermann in his farm,
where he collected several species of orchids. “To Mr.
Ferdinand Nevermann there are special obligations for
a most pleasant and profitable visit to his fincas in the
lowlands along the Reventazón River. Enviable is the
botanist who receives a welcome from so considerate
a host, or visits the forest with so competent a guide”
(Standley, 1937: 59). Among Standley’s orchid
specimens we find at least one new species collected
at the finca ‘Hamburgo’ of Ferdinand Nevermann:
Lepanthes confusa Ames & Schw. (Standley & Valerio
48709, Costa Rica: Limón: Hamburg Finca, on the
Rio Reventazón below Cairo, alt. 55 m).Standley
dedicated to Nevermann several species in other plant
families, among them Dichapetalum nevermannianum
in the Dichapetalaceae and Ardisia nevermannii in
the Myrsinaceae. Other botanists visited Nevermann,
among them Carroll W. Dodge, who in 1930 collected
in his farm a specimen of Cryptarrhena lunata R. Br.
(C.W. Dodge 7757).
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.