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Ornithocephalus, that was later dedicated to her. The
expedition was led by Dr. Raymond A. Paynter Jr.,
Assistant Curator for Birds at the Harvard Museum of
Zoology and Paynter suggested Dressler as the botanist
who should accompany the group. However, strongminded
Ruth Oberg had to give her consent: “I have
just spoken to the botanist and it is fairly certain that
he will be going along, provided, of course, he meets
with your approval. I asked him about the orchid
situation and he said that he is perfectly willing to give
you first choice on all orchids collected and you may
have the disposition of them” (R. Paynter in a letter
to R. Oberg, March 25, 1954). In April of that same
year, Oberg writes to Dressler and emphasizes her
point: “If you collect a single plant which is known to
me, so that I can make a record about it, you certainly
are welcome to keep it. But if it is something which
I will want to study, then I must reserve the right to
keep it. Otherwise my making this trip would lose its
point” (Letter to R. Dressler, April 19, 1954). When
they met, they became immediately good friends, and
for the rest of Oberg’s life, Dressler would call her
“Tía” (‘aunt’, in Spanish). Oberg described years later
the excursion to Laguna Ocotal, in an article published
in the journal of the Mexican Society of Orchidology
(Oberg, 1974). In the years to come, Oberg send large
amounts of plants to Dressler for identification, always
complaining that the answers came to slow because of
too much work on the side of ‘don Roberto’. During the
last years of her life, Oberg worked on a book on Mexican
orchids, which unfortunately was never published. She
wrote to Dressler: “You know how I’m going to start my
preface? ‘This book has been compiled with the hope it
will so irritate someone that he will write a better one!’ ”
(Letter to R. Dressler, June 10, 1966). One of Oberg’s
constant complaints was the quality of the then existing
books on Mexican orchids, especially the one published
by Norman P. Wright in 1958. “I certainly don’t want
to see an Icon. of Mex. Orch. if it is not better than
Norman Wright did his book. And he certainly did a
job of messing up the text for that folio of Orch. and
Humming birds” (Letter to R. Dressler, February 16,
1965). Among the collections made by Oberg we find
Maxillaria nagelii L.O. Williams ex Correll (Oberg
95) and Encyclia baculus (Rchb. f.) Dressler & G.E.
Pollard (Oberg 60). Epidendrum obergii A.D. Hawkes
had been dedicated to her in 1957.
LANKESTERIANA
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
Federico (Fritz) Halbinger (1925-2007) (Fig. 58B),
was the son of Christian Halbinger and, like his father,
an expert on Mexican orchids. In 1969 he was cofounder
of the Mexican Orchid Society “Amigos de las
Orquídeas” and in 1970 and 1971 he made extensive
collecting trips to the mountains of the Sierra Madre
in the company of Eric Hágsater, Robert Dressler, and
Glenn Pollard. These excursions were very successful,
also in terms of the discovery of new species. Shortly
after that, the journal “Orquídea (Mex.)” was founded,
and Halbinger began with the publication of a series
of articles, mainly on the genus Barkeria, that had
become his specialty. For this reason Miguel Angel
Soto Arenas honored him in 1993 with the new
species: Barkeria fritz-halbingeriana Soto Arenas. In
the following years Halbinger expanded his interest
to the genera Odontoglossum and Laelia, publishing
important monographic papers, again mostly in the
journal “Orquídea (Mex.)”. From 1973 to 1974,
Halbinger presided over the Mexican Society of
Orchidology.
Glenn E. Pollard (1900-1976) (Fig. 58C) was
born in the town of Kelso, Missouri, as the son of a
railroad man who moved frequently, so that Glenn’s
schooling was in varied backgrounds. He graduated
in mining and metallurgy at Stanford University in
1923. In 1950 Glenn and his wife Barbara made their
first visit to Mexico and the country made such a
favorable impression on them that when Glenn retired
in 1955, they decided to spend the winter there and
eventually made Oaxaca their home. “In Oaxaca the
Pollards made friends with Ruth Oberg, who for many
years had lived in the suburb of San Felipe del Agua
studying orchids, and with Tom MacDougall, who also
was widely known in biological circles as a veteran
collector of plants and small animals, and was perhaps
then the most knowledgeable person concerning the
topography and biota of Oaxaca and Chiapas. Ruth
introduced Glenn to the fascinating world of orchids
and Tom reinforced his budding interest with advice
and guidance. Soon Glenn began collecting a few
plants, and when the Pollards built their own house
in 1959, it included a small orchid house; Ruth Oberg
contributed some plants to get the collection well started
”(Greenwood, 1978: 9). The new road program which
started in the early 1960s in southern Mexico brought
wonderful opportunities for Pollard to collect orchids.