Tropical orchids with 1800s UK history
Published on: Saturday, March 17, 2018
Kota Kinabalu: Sabah has garnered world reputation for quality books published on flora and fauna with nearly half a century of association with The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew through Sabah-based Natural History Publications founder Datuk Chan Chew Lun.Chan, on Friday launched another authoritative orchid book – Dr Judy Stone and Phil Cribb's 'Lady Tankerville's Legacy: A Historical and Monographic Review of Phaius and Gastrorchis' officiated by Tan Jiew Hoe, an expert horticulturist and book author / collector from Singapore with one orchid specie named after him.In his address, Chan said the book launch on the orchid genera Phaius and Gastrorchis by the two outstanding orchidologists from United Kingdom have attracted orchid enthusiasts, botanists and horticulturalists as these orchids display great form and colour.
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"Yet few of these terrestrial orchids have been brought into popular culture, and there is great potential for enlarging this interest, and especially experimenting with hybrids between the species."There are 41 species and various islands in Southeast Asia including Borneo, as well as China and Vietnam, have an impressive diversity. This includes the three species and two varieties that the authors have established, of which one is named after our Guest-of-Honour, Tan Jiew Hoe," Chan said.In his address, Tan Jiew Hoe said that the authors Dr Judy Stone and Phil Cribb are "confident that more orchid species await discovery in the forests of Borneo and adjacent regions. Phaius orchids well represented in our forests, are amongst the most distinctive and largest of the terrestrial orchids."Dr Judy Stone graced the book launch at Hyatt Regency Hotel here, and, in the absence of her co-author Phil Cribb who could not attend, said: "This book is the story of Phaius, an orchid genus known for a long time, not much studied, not much cultivated. I hope that this account stimulates interest in what is a neglected group."
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She said Phaius are spectacular terrestrial orchids, widespread from tropical and subtropical Asia, Australasia, Madagascar and Africa.The genus comprises just over 40 species and used to include the endemic Madagascan genus Gastrorchis which has nine known species.
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For historical reasons and because they have frequently been artificially hybridized, both genera are covered in this monograph.They have a fascinating history: Phaius tankervilleae was the first tropical orchid to be grown and flowered in England some 250 years ago.Lady Tankerville refers to Lady Emma Colebrooke Tankervill (1752-1823), wife of Charles Bennet, the Fourth Earl of Tankervill, said to be an "Encourager of Botany".She amassed a considerable collection of exotic plants at Albury Hall in Essex.Before the photography era during her time, Lady Tankerville employed botanical artists to record the exotic plants she grew, and paintings by the eminent German artist Georg Dionysius Ehret are included in the collection of over 680 artworks that she commissioned, including Phaius tankervilleae painted in April 1790.Dr Judi Stone initially qualified as a biochemist, and was awarded her doctorate for research on novel methods of insect control.Taking up botanical illustration later in life, she established herself in this area by gaining honours at the Royal Horticultural Society.Since 1994 she has worked as a free-lance illustrator at Kew, producing both line-drawings and paintings for their publications, including Curtis' Botanical Magazine and, most notably, the six volumes of Genera Orchidacearum, for which she completed a large number of line-drawings.She is a Fellow and former Chairman of Chelsea Physic Garden Florilegium Society, and her work is held in numerous collections worldwide, including the Hunt Institute and the Lindley Library.This book introduces many showy and little known species to the reader and will, no doubt, stimulate interest in them and their attractive and easy-to-grow hybrids.Phaius orchids have a distinguished place in the history of orchid cultivation and science.In 1778, Sarah Hird in Yorkshire and Peter Collinson at Mill Hill in England flowered the Chinese orchid Phaius tankervilleae.It was an historic event, the first tropical orchid to be flowered in Europe. By the end of the century orchids were being grown in the gardens of royalty and the landed gentry across Western Europe, developing in the following century into a craze.A Chinese plant of Phaius tankervilleae was one of the first tropical orchids to flower at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, a plant that could claim to be the foundation of the oldest surviving collection of tropical orchids in the world. Phaius tankervilleae itself was named after Lady Tankerville by Sir Joseph Banks, the pre-eminent English explorer and botanist and the first, albeit unofficial, director of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew.The French botanist L'Heritier published Banks' name, mistakenly giving it a French spelling 'tancarvilleae', but Lady Tankerville was undoubtedly English.The orchid collection at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, first reported in the 1770s, grew rapidly and, today, proudly claims to be the oldest surviving collection of tropical orchids in the world.Banks and his wife also took up the cultivation of tropical orchids with some success, even inventing the hanging basket for epiphytic species, and promoted their cultivation.Robert Brown, who started his career as a botanist working on Banks's collections, used Phaius tankervilleae to explore the plant cell, identifying in it the plant nucleus for the first time. This fine species has remained in orchid collections and nurseries ever since but its fellow species have only made sporadic appearances in cultivation.In 1882, William Hemsley listed 26 species of Phaius and one hybrid in a List of Garden Orchids published in the Gardeners' Chronicle.However, few of them lingered in culture for many years. This is surprising because many of the species have spikes of showy flowers, larger than those of the more popular Calanthe, a genus that did become more widely grown and hybridised.In this book account the authors attempt to show the diversity found in the genus and the beauty and garden-worthiness of many of the species.Kew is a fitting place to study these orchids: it has incomparable living and preserved collections of orchids, the latter including many historically important specimens.This study concentrates on the genus Phaius, which historically has also included the Madagascan genus Gastrorchis. Both are considered in this monograph.Although many of the species have been in cultivation for decades, their cultivation and breeding have always been a side-line to that of the commercially important orchids, such as Cymbidium, Dendrobium, Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis and Vanda.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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