Bernard C. Gerrard asked: "Are there other man-made orchid hybrid "escapes" established in the wild?"
1) in Rabaul (East New Britain, PNG) & it's environs, an astonishing range of Dendrobium section Spatulata hybrids used to be naturalised. I don't know how many of them (if any) survived the Sept 1994 volcanic eruption. 2) In about 1984 I found specimens of Dendrobium 'Caesar ' established along the Warangoi-Kokopo road in East New Britain. 3) A plant that is morphologically identical to the small-flowered form of Dendrobium lineale from Morobe Province of PNG (colloquially know as 'Morobe Shower') is well established across the eastern part of the Tomohon Highlands in North Sulawesi (Indonesia). It may be an escaped species or it may be an escaped hybrid. In Tomohon it is widely grown as a garden plant, with most of the plants being wild-collected. 4) The 'Heinz 57-varieties' Spathoglottis that most people call "S. plicata" is widely naturalised across most of S.E.Asia and the Pacific. Every now and then a new form arises and displaces the old populations; the latest wave is a very aggressive, opportunistic, fast-growing autogamous form. These plants (and those in previous waves) are almost certainly of hybrid origin, but not necessarily man-made. Cheers, Peter O'Byrne Singapore _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
