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

institution in the research of the orchids of Panama,
especially after Paul H. Allen arrived at the Tropical
Station in 1934. Both the Field Museum and the
Missouri Botanical Garden established the world’s
major collections of Central and South American
plants.
The Flora of Panama (I)
“In the western hemisphere, the mountainous
area comprising the present Republics of Costa
Rica, Panama and Colombia probably has
the richest, and most highly developed of the
several complex orchid floras…”
Paul H. Allen (1953: 20)
In the 1930s and 1940s, a number of resident and
foreign botanists had collected orchids in Panama.
However, although Pittier had included the country’s
orchids in the final reports of the biological survey of
the Smithsonian (1912), Schlechter had published his
Orchidaceae Powellianae Panamenses (1922) and the
Orchidaceae were part of Standley’s floras of Barro
Colorado (1927) and the Canal Zone (1928), no formal
orchid flora of Panama would be published until the
last years of the first half of the XX century.
“[French-born] A. M. Butcher, who had changed
his name from Bouché, brought his family to the
isthmus in 1907 and went to work for the Canal on the
construction of the Gatún Spillway and hydroelectric
plant that supplied the electricity and power to run the
Canal” (Anonymous, 1970: 3). Two sons of Butcher
(or Bouché) are important in our story. One of them,
Adrien, kept his original French family name; the
other, Henry, went along with his father and named
himself Butcher.
During his many years on the Isthmus, Adrien
M. Bouché (1898 - ) “spent his spare time rambling
around the country as a botanist, researching local
plants and passing on the information he gathered
to drug companies, research laboratories and other
scientific institutions…. His extensive plant research
has not been limited to pharmaceutical plants alones.
Bouché has also devoted many years to collecting and
studying flowering plants and parasites and has several
varieties of orchids named for him”(Anonymous,
1970: 3). Among his collections is the type of
Sobralia bouchei Ames & Schweinf. (A.M. Bouché
ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
185
s.n.- 1930). Other collections by Bouché include
Oncidium ochmatochilum Rchb. f. (A.M. Bouché
9), Epidendrum oncidioides var. ramonense (Rchb.
f.) Ames, Hubb. & Schweinf. (A.M. Bouché 10),and
Sobralia atropubescens Ames & C. Schweinfurth
(A.M. Bouché 2755).
Henry P. Butcher was known for his keen knowledge
of the orchids of Panama and collected for more than
50 years between 1933 and 1986, although he had
never received any botanical education. He lived in the
area of Volcán, province of Chiriquí, and among his
specimens we find Sievekingia suavis Rchb. f. (Butcher
s.n.), Kegeliella kupperi Mansf. (Butcher s.n.),
Stanhopea pulla Rchb. f. (Butcher s.n.), Coryanthes
maculata Lindl. (Butcher s.n.), Telipogon dendriticus
Rchb. f., and the type of Gongora maculata Lindl.
var. latibasis C. Schweinf. & Allen (Butcher s.n.).
Dressler wrote to him, with some frustration: “This
business of new species turning up in two or three
places at once is unnerving. It makes me wonder if we
really know anything about Central American orchids
or not” (Letter from Dressler to Butcher, July 1, 1963).
So many species were discovered thanks to Butcher’s
collections that Dressler wrote to him in 1963: “Cal
[Dodson] and I have been talking for a couple of years
of doing a supplement to the Orchids of Panama.
… There have been many species added to the flora
of Panama since the orchid section was published,
especially through your collections…” (Letter from
Dressler to Butcher, May 10, 1963). Named in Butcher’s
honor were: Dryadella butcheri Luer, Masdevallia
butcheri Luer, Pleurothallis butcheri L.O. Williams,
Sievekingia butcheri Dressler, Stelis butcheri Luer,
Stellilabium butcheri Dressler, Telipogon butcheri
Dodson & R. Escobar. Of interest are Butcher’s Notes
from Panama (1959 & 1965), where he describes his
orchid collecting adventures in that country. Butcher
had a life-long relation with the Missouri Botanical
Garden and with many renowned botanists from
his time: Louis Williams, Walter Lindsay, Alex D.
Hawkes, Alphonse Heller, Robert E. Woodson, Leslie
A. Garay, Carl Withner, Clarence Horich, P. Allen,
Robert L. Dressler and Charles Schweinfurth.
E. D. Starry collected in Panama in July and August,
1931. Among his specimens we find Palmorchis
powellii (Ames) C. Schweinf. & Correll (Starry 323)
and Catasetum viridiflavum Hook. (Starry 119).
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.