Hi Barbara. I've been enjoying your very public flame-session with Peter C. As you intended, I was awed by the 12-inch "Phragmipedium kovachii" seedling in the photo .... your Master has indeed got green fingers. At that astonishing rate of growth, it will be in flower very soon .... cannot be more than another 12 months, eh ? That is more-or-less what I predicted last year ... nice to know I'm not going to disappointed by you magicians.
I just wish to take issue with a one-liner you slipped into your OGD Vol 8 #300 posting: "In the end, they (the other guys", with flasks from PeruFlora) will have preserved far more Pk for posterity" Unless you are making herbarium specimens, I cannot see how you justify your claim to be preserving Pk for posterity. Unless the natural habitat is threatened with imminent destruction (not the case with Pk), transplanting any wild orchid to a different subcontinent, to a place where it cannot survive without human intervention, is neither conservation or preservation. Let's be honest. What you are trying to pass off as "preservation" is nothing other than commercial exploitation, no matter which set of guys are doing it. >From the astonishing number of flasks (of both the species and its hybrids) that have been sold, it is clear that Pk pollinia and seed are far, far more fertile than any other Phragmipedium known. Your postings provide evidence that Pk grows super-fast from seed. Such an auspicious set of circumstances mean that Pk is extremely unlikely to become endangered or extinct in the wild ... not when every flower is so easy to pollinate, sets seed so readily, the seeds germinate so easily, the seedlings grow so rapidly, and (the next astounding discovery) flower so quickly. Since Pk propogates itself like a weed, it cannot possibly be in any danger in Peru, so how can you claim to be preserving it for posterity ? Please explain. Cheers, Peter O'Byrne _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
