"in the hills of Mendocino County... a plant propagator checks the rows of flasks... the Calypso Grower isn't doing anything illegal. She's just trying to cultivate a wild orchid.
They're not listed as endangered (unlike some eastern populations), but calypso orchids in California have lost habitat to logging, and feral pigs eat the bulbs... Poached plants and bulbs have been offered for sale on eBay, and some stands have been trampled by wildflower photographers. The calypso orchid (Calypso bulbosa var. occidentalis) is one of our earliest-blooming native orchids; they were just beginning to emerge at Armstrong Redwoods State Park when we were there March 5. Calypso, named for a sea nymph in Greek mythology, grows in conifer forest duff in California's coastal counties from the Oregon border to Santa Cruz, and in the Klamath ranges. Its pouched shape has inspired names like Venus' slipper and fairy slipper. Most calypso flowers are magenta and white; a few are all white... ... pollinators... for calypso, bumblebees and other native bees... Epipactis gigantea, the giant stream orchid... mimics the honeydew scent of aphids to lure syrphid flies. Syrphid larvae parasitize aphids... Calypso, like most orchids, eventually shifts to manufacturing its own food, supplemented by fungal carbohydrates. Others, like the phantom orchid, lack chlorophyll and depend on fungal associates for their entire lives... The Calypso Grower,... "In the spring of 2005..." she says, "I was taking a walk in the woods, thinking there ought to be some way to get something growing to help support myself..." That began what she calls her contract with Calypso,,, try to stop the poaching and... make a modest income... She now sells calypso seeds harvested from her property through the Internet and is working on in-vitro germination... During her first year, only two of her several hundred calypsos produced seed capsules. In 2006, she caged the orchids in chicken wire to protect them from predators... The result... was an 85 percent fruit set; seeds tested in a lab had viable embryos. Some of those seeds went to hopeful growers as far away as Scotland, Denmark, Germany and Mexico. The Calypso Grower now harvests seed on a three-year rotation... The seed resembles garlic powder... "If you're in the forest when the seed capsules are opening," she says, "when these babies pop, it looks like smoke. The seeds rise and drift, go off on the wind..." Next came the flasks and the homemade glove box for sterile manipulation. Given the right growing medium, the orchids will germinate on their own. The Calypso Grower uses a coconut-based mix from PhytoTechnology Laboratories. "We're fine-tuning it, making progress," she reports. The next step will be growing them out in containers. That will require replicating forest floor conditions. "It does want a gentle slope," says the Calypso Grower. "It needs drainage; I get upset when people tell me it's a bog orchid. And it does OK with dry summers..." The Calypso Grower hopes what she's doing will make the orchid available to adventurous gardeners without harming wild populations. Resources The Calypso Orchid Co.: calypsoorchid.com. "The Wild Orchids of California" by Ronald Coleman (Comstock; 1995; $27.95). URL : http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/03/18/HO0HVIC67.DTL photo : [caption : "The calypso orchid grows in conifer forest duff in California's coastal counties from the Oregon border to Santa Cruz. Most calypso flowers are magenta and white; a few are all white."] http://imgs.sfgate.com/c/pictures/2008/03/19/ho_joes.jpg ************** Regards, VB _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) orchids@orchidguide.com http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
