Collection of Orchids

orchid illustration 1

The study of orchids should appeal to any lover of Nature’s beauty and wonders, and is one to be encouraged. Orchid-hunting is a delightful pastime entailing much healthful walking exercise, and adding unending charm to bush excursions. The interest of the beginner who has acquired some knowledge of species and habits, rapidly becomes the enthusiasm of the keen collector. And there is no doubt that the pursuit of Nature-study once cultivated by those lucky bush-dwellers with opportunity at their door-step, does much to relieve the monotony of country life.

“Live and let live,” however, should be the motto of those orchid-seekers who strive to pick every flower on sight-a practice that can have but one result, the gradual but sure extermination of even the commonest kinds. Most children, and grown-ups also, have much to learn in this respect. Just a few carefully selected specimens in a loose bunch are ever so much more effective than hundreds of blooms tightly packed into a great mass than can scarcely be held in the hand. Orchids picked in this wholesale fashion usually are thrown away almost as soon as gathered or upon reaching home, because of their pitiable crushed and wilted condition, or the impossibility of using such quantities for decorative purpose in any one house. Quality and- variety, not quantity, should be the aim of the orchid-hunter, also the opportunity of noting the characteristics of different species.

Children love orchids. They see quaint resemblances to something or other in almost every familiar variety. Perhaps because West Australian orchids mostly are plants of lowly stature, and the eyes of children are nearer the ground than those of grown-ups, boys and girls usually have what is known as “the orchid eye” exceedingly well developed, and are wonderfully quick at noticing species often unobserved by the casual passer-by.

A carefully prepared and properly classified orchid collection is of great interest. The specimens should be pressed by placing them carefully between sheets of blotting-paper as flat as possible and applying pressure with a hot iron. They should then be neatly mounted on a piece of stout white paper – not stuck on, but held in position by several narrow strips of adhesive paper – and labelled with the correct botanical name, colour, the common name or names by which known, locality where found, and the date.

The various species should be grouped together under the headings of their respective genera, and the whole collection kept either in folders made of thick paper, or mounted on heavy paper and the sheets bound together by fine cord run through punched holes on the loose-leaf system, so that fresh specimens may be put away in their proper places as collected.

Systematic botanists are often compelled to rely solely upon dried specimens of plants from different lands for purposes of study and description. Bentham’s monumental work, “Flora Australiensis” affords a striking example from a classification point of view of what can be attained without personal knowledge of the flora of a country in its natural state.

But no one interested, and fortunate enough to live within reach of the living and growing plants, should be content with such acquaintance with orchids. The observation of the growth and development of the various species from week to week, and year to year, is a fascinating hobby, Notes carefully kept with comparisons of various individual plants of the same variety growing under different conditions may yield valuable unrecorded information.

It is in this way, for in stance, that one becomes acquainted with the great change in the whole form of the plant which such a common orchid as Pterostylis vittata undergoes during the first three year of its growth. Many of the orchids in Western Australia such as this one which grows readily from seed, are easily cultivated in boxes or pots and under such conditions can be studied at frequent intervals without difficulty. (See Lyperanthus Forrestii and Cryptostylis ovata.)

[Editors note: West Australian wildflowers, including orchids are protected on public land, and should not be picked. They may be picked on private land, with the permission of the owner.]

West Australian Orchids Series

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Collection of Orchids

West Australian Orchids Series

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