• 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

Catasetum saccatum var. christyanum

It was a tropical American orchid that really began the craze for orchids in Victorian society. In 1818, William Swainson sent home plants of Cattleya labiata as packing material for other more choice specimens that he had collected in Brazil. Once the ‘packing’ came into bloom, however, its glorious, large, pink and purple flowers caught the attention of horticulturists.

The forested mountains of South and Central America are home to a vast number of orchids. Botanists estimate that Brazil alone contains over 3000 different species. Most of them live as epiphytes, perched on tree branches high above the gloom of the forest floor. There they can obtain enough light to grow and their colourful flowers attract bird and insect pollinators.

Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Panama, Costa Rica, Mexico and Guatemala – all these countries proved fruitful hunting grounds for avid orchid collectors. George Ure Skinner set out for Central America as a merchant in 1831, and over the next 35 years he introduced at least 100 new orchid species into cultivation. The Polish collector Josef Ritter von Warscewicz was particularly intrepid. Accompanied by a single guide, he journeyed through Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica. Despite the loss of an arm, Benedict Roezl travelled across the Americas several times on foot or horseback, collecting a total of 800 plant species new to horticulture.

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