Orchid Borealis

This species is from the State of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.   GBIF has a record from Nova Friburgo , a municipality in the State of Rio de Janeiro.  Neubig et al (2012) mentioned a report from near Caracas , Venezuela, which is far from Rio de Janeiro and may be an escape from cultivation. With the current knowledge, this species belonging to a monotypic genus (a genus with only one known species) is justified, but the relationship of this genus to others is not completely understood yet (in my interpretation of the data).  This species was originally described as Oncidium limminghei in 1855.  It was moved to a monotypic Psychopsiella in 1982.  Subsequently, based on nuclear ITS sequences, Chase (2005) lumped this species into genus Psychopsis . This species does look like a miniture Psychopsis if you look at the patterned leaves, so this seemed to be logical.  However, a later study with additional data (6 regions of chloroplast sequences; cpDNA...

Schoenorchis tixieri is from 900 -1400m from  S. Yunnan and Vietnam (Xinqi and Wood 2009). I was told that mine is Chinese origin, so mine might be from S. Yunnan, but I don't know the detailed history. From looking at the flower of my plants with 10x loupe, I can't tell the difference from S. fragrans .  Unfortunately, I killed my S. fragrans , and I didn't take photos when it flowered, so I have been gazing photos in Flickr and from google image search.  I should mention that there are lots of misidentified S. seidenfadenii  labelled as S. fragrans .  These two species are relatively easy to tell if you look at the callus shape and the angle of the spur.  Seidenfaden (1988, p.66-69) discussed the difference, and here is the key to differentiate them: Epichile of lip with two low rounded calli besides each other, separated by a cleft. Spur in obtuse angle to epichile .... S. seidenfadenii Epichile with a single large semi globular callus. Spur in a ...

Habenaria repens is a widely distributed species, from the Southeastern United States, Central America, the Carribean and the majority of South America ( link to a distribution map, some of these are not within the native range).  Within the US, it occurs in the coastal states from North Carolina to Texas ( link to the occurrence map). This species grows in moist area, and it can grow as a semi-aquatic plants, growing on floating mats on ponds (Hunt 1943).  As an interesting side note, a phenolic compound, called habenariol , has been extracted from this species and its antioxidant activity has been reported (Johnson et al. 1999).  It turned out that this compound is a feeding deterrent against the freshwater omnivorous crayfish, Procambarus clarkii .  It is interesting that people used to think that herbivory wouldn't be a big problem for aquatic plants, but this example shows that this orchid has evolved the counter-measure against herbivory. From a dist...

Angraecum popowii is endemic to Madagascar .  It is from shady, highland Uapaca bojeri forests of Antananarivo , Fianarantsoa , and Toamasina (Cribb and Hermans, 2009).  The elevation range is 1200-1500m. According to the artificial key to section Aranchnangraecum by Cribb and Hermans (2009), the channelled semiterete leave is one of the key trait to distinguish this species from two related species,  A. linearifolium and A. teretifolium . The later two species have terete leaves, and the leaves are not obviously channelled, so this is a trait which can be used to differentiate without flowers.  In the photo below, I tried to show this channel on the top side of the leaves. Once they flower, A. linearifolium can be easily distinguished from the other two since it has completely different, spidery flowers.   A. popowii and A. teretifolium show similar flower shapes, but A. popowii has a larger flower; the sepal lengths are 30mm for A. popowii , 1...

I got this compact species from Ecuagenera in spring 2017.  It was a bit dehydrated at first. I mounted it on a cedar shingle, and kept it lying horizontally (instead of hanging the mount).  It managed to recover, and this is the first bloom under my care. Epidendrum moronense shows relatively narrow distribution.  It is from wet forests of south-eastern Ecuador; in the basin of the Río Zamora , on the slopes of the Cordillera Oriental and the Cordillera del Condor (Hágster, 2015).  They are known from the provinces of Loja , Zamora-Chinchipe , and Morona Santiago . The species epithet is derived from the province, Morona-Santiago, where this species occurs, although the type specimen was collected in Zamora-Chinchipe. The elevation range is 800-1400m (Hágster, 2015). The frilly lip and the reflexed sepals and petals make the flowers interesting.  The column is usually white, and the lip is white, but the color of petals and sepals can vary.  This i...

The northern pike ( Esox lucius ) is one of the largest fish that we can catch in interior Alaska. Since last winter, Taiga and I have been talking about catching pike.  We have tried a couple times this summer without a success.  We wanted to give another try before the summer ends.  Right after we loaded up all the gear onto the truck on Aug. 5, an accidental injury occurred that morning and we had to postpone the trip.  It was sad to see Taiga's disappointment, but I'm always amazed by his ability to understand.  Then last weekend (Aug. 12), we could finally hit Tanana Lakes! Tanana Lakes Recreational Area is a relatively new park, which opened in 2014.  When we arrived to Fairbanks (before 2006), the area was junk-filled wetlands, where people were shooting abandoned cars.  It was a good spot for birding, though. Fairbanks North Star Borough Parks and Recreation Department has converted this to a wonderful area for families ( link to its histor...

Salmon dipnetting is a frequent summer conversation topic among Alaskans.  We use a big net with a 0.9-1.5m (3-5') diameter hoop and a 2.4-6m (8-20') long handle to scoop up fish.  We have been thinking of taking our 5-year-old son to dip-netting for a while, but we finally decided to do it this year.  Most Fairbanks people go to Chitna , about 5.5 hours of drive, to harvest the famous Copper River salmon. Chitna is too dangerous for kids since you have to fish from the shore of rapidly flowing copper river, usually on a big rock on which only a couple people can stand.  Instead, we chose Kenai River/Beach, about 9 hours from Fairbanks.  In Kenai, we are fishing from the beach at the mouth of Kenai River, so it is safe for kids. This post is just a brief travel log so that we can remember the fun time we had. Taiga experienced lots of "firsts" in this trip.  For example, touching and/or eating the cloud is something all kids imagine about.  While ...