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• Introduction
• John
Day and his scrapbooks
• Conserving
orchids
• Investigating
orchids
• Orchid
collecting - then and now
• Orchids
from the New World tropics
• Orchids of the mysterious East
• Orchids
out of Africa
Paphiopedilum sanderianum
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Tales of the mysterious East enthralled English society for centuries
before Victorian travellers began to make regular expeditions into
India and the lands beyond. The weird and wonderful orchids and
other plants that they discovered in the forests just added to the
curiosity about these countries.
As well as the lowland tropical rainforests, plant hunters visited
the mist forests clinging to equatorial mountain slopes. Often shrouded
in cloud, these extremely humid forests, especially between 800
and 2000m above sea-level, are home to a particularly diverse collection
of orchids. Many live on the moss-clad tree branches whilst others
thrive on the shadier damp forest floor. It is estimated that some
6000 species of orchids grow in the Asian tropics.
Hugh Low was a prolific collector, who began working
for the family nursery in the 1840s but became an eminent colonial
administrator. He was the first European to climb Mount Kinabalu
on Sabah, now believed to be among the world’s richest orchid
habitats. Charles Parish was an army chaplain based
in Burma, who became a keen orchid collector when he saw the plant
treasures in the forests there. One of Kew’s own botanists
introduced some very fine Asian orchids, including the fabulous
blue vanda (Vanda coerulea). Sir Joseph Hooker,
who later followed in his father’s footsteps as Director of
Kew, travelled in the Himalayas for three years from 1847. His expeditions
were often eventful; on one trip he was thrown into jail in Sikkim
and almost lost his life.
Image
Gallery: Tropical Asia >>>
More:
Orchids out of Africa >>>
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