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ossenbaCh — Orchids and orchidology in Central America
Rica’s most important orchid illustrator is therefore
still unknown to the scientific community. Rafael
Lucas named Odontoglossum hortensiae in 1979 in
honor of his wife Hortensia Sevilla.
Rebecca Tyson Northen (1911-2004) (Fig. 60C)
played a vital role in the future preservation of
Lankester Garden in Costa Rica, an institution that has
become the leading research station for Orchidaceae
in our region. She had made the acquaintance of
Charles Lankester in the 1950s and was the leader of
the campaign that led to the purchase of the garden
by the Stanley Smith Horticultural Trust and the
American Orchid Society, to be later donated to the
University of Costa Rica. Unquestionable one of the
most recognizable and popular personalities in the
orchid community, Rebecca was friend and educator
to countless individuals throughout our fraternity. A
trained biologist, Rebecca traveled extensively with her
husband Henry in Central and South America, studying
and collecting orchids in the wild (Anonymous, 2004:
410). During the 1st World Orchid Conference, held in
St. Louis, Missouri, in 1951, Gordon Dillon introduced
her as “the mother and father of beginning orchid
growers” (Watson, 2002: 12).
Myth and reality: Costa Rica during the years of
Dora E. Mora and Joaquín García. Dora Emilia
Mora de Retana (1940-2001) (Fig. 61A) was for
many years, after Rafael Lucas Rodríguez, the only
Costa Rican orchidologist with a scientific training in
Botany. She went her first steps in the field of Botany
at the side of don Rafael Lucas. Soon however she
began to shine with her own light until she became this
almost mythical figure (although often controversial,
especially because of her almost dictatorial way to
conduct the affairs at Lankester Garden) that we will
always remember. With the blessing of Rafael Lucas
Rodríguez, she took over as Director of the Lankester
Garden in the year of 1979, and kept that post until she
retired in the year 2000. During the 22 years in which
she was the Director, Dora Emilia had the merit of
converting Lankester Garden in an obligatory meeting
point for orchidologists from all over the world who
visited Costa Rica. Slowly but surely, the Lankester
Botanical Garden was transformed from a small farm
of 10,7 hectares to a botanical garden of world fame.
To the old farm of Charles Lankester came important
215
scientists such as Calaway Dodson, Robert Dressler,
Carlyle Luer, Eric Hágsater, John Atwood, Rudolf
Jenny, Henry Oakeley and many others. Knowledge
about Costa Rican orchids increased enormously:
Ames, in 1937, had registered for Costa Rica 133
genera and 959 species (Standley, 1937). In the Lista
actualizada de las orquídeas de Costa Rica (1992),
published by Dora Emilia Mora and Joaquín García,
these numbers increased to 179 genera and 1,416
species.
From 1984 on, Dora Emilia organized courses in
orchidology at the University of Costa Rica. The first of
these courses was given by Dr. Robert L. Dressler, who
at the request of Dora Emilia spent several months in
Costa Rica as an invited professor. The projects which
resulted from the collaboration between Dora Emilia
and Dr. John T. Atwood where the most important
contributions to the international projection of the name
of the Lankester Botanical Garden. Together with him
she published fascicles 15 and 16 of Icones Plantarum
Tropicarum, on the orchids of Costa Rica (1992-93),
and the treatise about Maxillariinae y Oncidiinae in the
Flora Costaricensis of the Field Museum of Chicago
(1999). Her friends were always loyal and dedicated
five new species to Dora Emilia Mora de Retana.
Eric Hágsater named in her honor Epidendrum moraretanae,
Günter Gerlach Kefersteinia retanae, Robert
Dressler Sobralia doremiliae, Carlyle Luer Stelis
morae and Calaway Dodson and Rodrigo Escobar
Telipogon retanarum.Dora Emilia Mora de Retana’s
scientific contributions remained on a domestic level.
Her greatest achievement was to maintain during long
years a botanical garden amidst enormous financial
difficulties and to convert it into a research center
to which she was able to attract the world’s leading
orchidologists.
The year 2001 was not a good one: barely six weeks
after the death of Dora Emilia, Dr. Joaquín Bernardo
García Castro (1944-2001) (Fig. 61B) passed away
in San José. A good friend and collaborator of Dora
Emilia Mora, we read about him in the words of
Jorge Warner: “Dr. García had a great influence on
the development of orchid cultivation as a hobby. He
was always willing to share his knowledge with the
beginners. He was a master among the orchid growers,
who listened carefully as he explained, with in-depth
experience and in a very simple form, such complicated
LANKESTERIANA 9(1—2), August 2009. © Universidad de Costa Rica, 2009.