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

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212 of Orchidology proposed to Miguel A. Ramírez the idea of founding a Costa Rican organization which should unite all those interested in the cultivation and conservation of orchids. Ramírez responded with enthusiasm and found immediate support from Rafael Lucas Rodríguez, Dorothy Lankester, daughter of Charles Lankester, who had recently passed away, and Roy Lent. The first meeting of the group was held in a classroom at the School of Biology of the University of Costa Rica on May 16, 1970, and in July of that same year the Costa Rican Orchid Society (Asociación Costarricense de Orquideología, or A.C.O.) was officially constituted, with Miguel A. Ramírez as its first president. And here the links of history can be easily understood: it was Lankester who seduced Rafael Lucas Rodríguez into the world of orchids when he first asked him to paint Pescatoria cerina. And it was one of the main purposes of A.C.O. to save ‘El Silvestre’, the orchid garden of Charles Lankester and Rafael Lucas Rodríguez who made the international contacts and organized a network of institutions that eventually provided the funds to buy the property and donate it to the University of Costa Rica. On March 2, 1973, Rafael Lucas had the satisfaction of giving the opening address during the official inauguration of the Lankester Botanical Garden (Fig. 60B). Rafael Lucas Rodríguez was not only a great biologist and a convinced humanist, he was also a man of charm and humor. Robert Dressler, his friend and admirer, remembers an episode which describes vividly Rafael Lucas’ character: “In one major botanical congress, we learned that Dr. Rodríguez was to present an afterdinner speech on Recent advances in Algology. None of us knew him to be interested in algae, and there was much speculation on the subject of the speech, but Don Rafa smilingly evaded all leading questions. When the time came, the speech had little to do with algae. Rather, he went back to the Greek, algos = ‘pain’, and laid the foundations for a new science, the study of pain and more specifically, the pain caused by sitting on hard chairs in classrooms and auditoria, listening to poorly prepared, or overly long lectures illustrated by blurry or upside-down slides. The talk was charming, erudite and very funny. No one suffered the slightest pain on that occasion” (Rodríguez et al., 1986: 10). Rafael Lucas was instrumental in Dressler’s early interest in Costa Rican orchids, as it becomes clear LANKESTERIANA LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009. when one reads through their mutual correspondence. In 1977 Rafael Lucas was awarded the highest academic honor of the country: the ‘Magón’, National Award for Cultural Achievement, as a recognition of his extraordinary contributions to botanical science. In the same year, the lagoons of Palo Verde, in the province of Guanacaste, were declared as a Wildlife Refuge under the name Refugio Nacional de Fauna Silvestre Rafael Lucas Rodríguez Caballero (today part of the Palo Verde National Park). In 1979, an exhibit of his botanical illustrations was staged at the Museum of Botany and the Arts at the Marie Selby Botanical Garden in Sarasota, Florida. On some occasions, Rafael Lucas painted orchids without realizing that they were species new to science, and which were later, in many cases, dedicated to him. This was the case with Epidendrum rafael-lucasii Hágsater, Lepanthes rafaeliana Pupulin, Masdevallia rafaeliana Luer, Encyclia ossenbachiana Pupulin, and Maxillaria rodrigueziana J.T. Atwood & Mora-Ret. Shortly before his death, in 1980, his paintings were exhibited at the National Museum in San José. In 1986, the University of Costa Rica published a beautiful volume, authored by Dora E. Mora, María E. Barahona and Norris H. Williams, with some texts from Dr. Rodríguez, featuring 143 of the most beautiful orchid paintings by Rafael Lucas, under the name of Géneros de Orquídeas de Costa Rica (Rodríguez et al., 1986). Rafael Lucas Rodríguez passed away on January 29, 1981, after a long disease. We leave the final words to Francisco Amighetti, Robert Dressler and Rudolf Jenny: “A good man in the broadest sense of the word … [his paintings] are a wonderful tool for anyone studying the orchids of Costa Rica, and their value will only increase as the availability of orchids in their natural habitat diminishes everywhere.… Dr. Rodríguez death was a tragedy, and we can only imagine what he might have done with another ten or twenty years of life… that charm and intellect that was Don Rafa can never be replaced…An extraordinarely friendly person, a true gentleman and artist ” (Rodríguez et al., 1986: 11). Unfortunately, only about 150 of Rafael Lucas’ 1,092 illustrations were recovered by the University of Costa Rica, mainly those that were used for the publication of his book. The rest remained in the hands of his family. The largest part of the legacy of Costa
A B C ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America Figure 60. A — First paragraph of Rodriguez’s Orchids of the Central American Isthmus. Courtesy of Lankester Botanical Garden, University of Costa Rica. B — Rafael Lucas Rodríguez inaugurating the Lankester Botanical Garden on March 2, 1973. Courtesy of Ricardo Lankester. C — Rebecca Northen (third from left) with her husband, Charles Lankester, and one of Lankester daughters, during a visit to Costa Rica. Courtesy of James Watson, American Orchid Society. 213 LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.
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