“Stories Orchids Tell” From the Swamps of Florida to the Cloud Forests of Peru
Masdevallia genus. It is found in the wild in northwestern Peru, where it is known as Gallo-Gallo, meaning "rooster" after the rooster-like red comb, crest and wattles of the flower. A national treasure of Peru, it is rumoured to have been cultivated by the Incas centuries ago.
“You can get off alcohol, drugs, women, food and cars, but
once you’re hooked on orchids, you’re finished. You never get
off orchids…never.” Joe Kunisch, orchid grower, Rochester, NY
There are places in Peru’s rain forest where, according to
Stig Dalström, a Swedish horticulturist, no one has ventured.
Such places are home to many yet to be discovered botanical
treasures.
The orchid species, the world’s oldest flowering plant,
dating back to the dinosaur age, is one such gold mine. “Peru
may one day be recognized as number one when it comes to
orchids.” explained Dalström when I met him recently in Peru.
Currently, Ecuador boasts 4000 orchid species with Columbia
and New Guinea next on the top ten list. As a point of
reference, orchids form the largest family of flowering plants,
with between 20,000 and 30,000 species currently identified.
Many more are waiting to be discovered.
Today, Dalström, a passionate orchid connoisseur,
botanical illustrator and former Curator of the Orchid
Identification Center at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in
Sarasota, Florida, is working on a documentary film series
entitled, “Wild Orchid Man”. Collaborating with Darryl Saffer
an American documentary film maker, composer and musician,
the two are gradually making their way into this rich and
diverse Peruvian biosphere. They also belong to the growing
number of people who are sharing the stories orchids tell.
Back in April, I had the good fortune to come across
Dalström and Saffer filming in Machu Picchu, the world-
renowned Inca site, considered one of the seven wonders of
the world. Also known as “The Lost City”, it was discovered just
a hundred years ago by Hiram Bingham, a Yale University
archeologist.
Working on their film “The Journey to Machu Picchu”,
the two happened to be staying at our ecolodge, Inkaterra
which also serves as headquarters for the ‘Reserva ecologica’.
With over 42,000 acres teeming with flora including 372 orchid
species and fauna such as an Andean bear on the endangered
species list, Inkaterra is an ecological success story. Formerly a
clear-cut tea plantation, it has reverted to its natural state
thanks to the vision of its founder, Joe Koechlin, an ardent
conservationist. Also a businessman he was the Peruvian film
producer for Werner Herzog’s films, “Aguirre, The Wrath of
God” and “Fitzcarraldo”.
While pointing out some of its botanical treasures, the
conservation program’s director, Carmen Soto, concurred with
the film makers that Peru’s biodiversity is one of the richest on
the planet. Designated A Sanctuary for Natural Conservation in
1981, Machu Picchu has also been privy to the research of the
Harvard University biologist and conservationist, A.O. Wilson,
as well as the prestigious Missouri Botanical Garden. For the
film team, invited by Inkaterra, it was both a destination and a
gateway.
Until now, I had envisioned Machu Picchu, (“Old Peak”, in
the native Quechua), as an Inca site, comparable to Angkhor
Wat in Cambodia. Built in the 15th century, just prior to the
Spanish conquistador, Pizarro’s invasion, as a majestic royal
city surrounded by terraces cascading down the steep
mountains, its cloud forest, host to countless species of birds,
butterflies, trees and epiphytes, is breathtakingly beautiful. As
Hiram Bingham romantically put it: “Not only has it great snow
peaks looming above the clouds more than two miles
overhead; gigantic precipices of many-colored granite …
foaming, glistening, roaring rapids, it has also, in striking
contrast, orchids and tree ferns, the delectable beauty of
luxurious vegetation and the mysterious witchery of the
jungle.”
Orchids indeed are bewitching. Susan Orlean’s book, “The
Orchid Thief”, about a man’s obsession with a rare and
mysterious orchid in the swamps of southern Florida was a
bestseller. And then there is the film, “Adaptation” starring
Meryl Streep.
Upon first meeting Stig Dalström in the Andes, I
wondered if he just might be “the” orchid thief. After all, as his
film associate, Darryl Saffer pointed out, he is known by
friends and associates as the “Wild Orchid Man”. In addition,
Orlean’s very same Florida orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) is
the star of the first film of their series,“The Ghost Orchid
Swamp”. As a professional orchid taxonomist, however, it
should come as no surprise that Dalström would find himself
in the eye of a Florida hurricane, in this case, a famous
botanical legal hurricane in 2002 at the Marie Selby Botanical
Gardens in Sarasota.
It revolved around a Peruvian lady slipper,
Phragmipedium kovachii, that had been smuggled into Miami
by a Michael Kovach (and hence “baptized”, kovachii ). Not
wasting any time, Kovach brought it for official identification to
the Selby Gardens, known worldwide for its collection of
exquisite orchids. It seemed to be the perfect place; the
procedure however, was less than perfect.
According to a reporter, Craig Pitman, who covered the
story in depth for the St. Petersburg Times and is now writing
“The Scent of a Scandal”: “When Kovach carried that lady
slipper orchid into a roomful of scientists at Selby Gardens …
he was greeted by a simultaneous wave of eye-widening and
mouth opening.” No wonder. This was a gargantuan,
flamboyant, fuschia colored orchid. And, it was like hitting the
jackpot for Selby.
At the time, Dalström was working as a volunteer
research associate on the Selby team that identified it and
published their findings thereby giving it official status. Not so
fast. The Peruvian Government soon asked the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service to investigate the matter and return the orchid.
(All species of Phragmipedium are protected under the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species or
CITES which prohibits their trade without proper supervision).
The legal saga which became a major scandal for the Gardens
dragged on for a couple of years. Numerous board members
resigned and the director of Selby was ousted.
In 2004, the U.S. District Court in Tampa, Florida fined
Kovach $1000 and placed him under probation for one year. A
colleague of Dalström’s wound up with two years of probation
and a fine of $2,000 and Selby was hit with a $5,000 fine. A
couple of ironies remain: the orchid still bears Kovach’s name
and — not surprisingly, the returned orchid died in a Lima
museum.
My curiosity piqued, I asked the film makers if one of the
lady slipper’s relatives might be lurking at Inkaterra. No such
luck. To encounter it one must travel deep into the Alto Mayo,
a large protected area that borders the Amazon in
northeastern Peru. While it’s not easy to penetrate, it will be
the location for another film, “The Mountains Of Amazonas”.
When asked if the renowned orchid might be included,
Dalström responded: “We tried to film the story about it but it
was not allowed. We were not able to secure permits from the
Peruvian government in time”.
How was the film series first conceived? “For years, Stig
and I talked about doing a series about orchids. We wanted a
different angle than the Discovery Channel’s. Our approach is
to cover environmental issues from a human interest
perspective. We want to combine art with science. Even though
Stig is a scientist, he is also botanical artist and I’m a musician
and composer.” Their hope is to see The National Geographic
Society take on the series for distribution. .
After Peru, where? Manitoba, Canada where they plan to
shoot: “Bears, Belugas and Wild Orchids”.
It should come as no surprise that in her 1995 article for the New Yorker, “Orchid Fever” Susan Orlean wrote: “… orchids seem to drive people crazy. The people who love orchids love them madly, but the passion for orchids is not necessarily a passion for beauty. Something about the form of an orchid
makes it seem almost more like a creature than a flower.”
Orchids — or, rather, peoples’ attitudes towards them
—are also the raison d’être of a multi-billion dollar industry. If
we can’t own a rare one, at least in films we can marvel at
them in their natural habitat.
"Ghost Orchid" by Stig Dalstrom
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