The lady’s slippers, orchids with showy and unusual flowers with considerable diversity in shape, size and colour, are amongst the most popular of all orchids in science and horticulture. Consequently, the botanical and horticultural literature on them is extensive. Art...

Pleurothallis indecora, P. juvenilis, P. lueriana and P. queremalensis are described from material collected in the municipality of Dagua, department of Valle del Cauca, Colombia. The four species were found during field inventories of the Orchidaceae in San José del Sa...

 The coins of Costa Rica include a variety of plant illustrations, ranging from a palm tree (Attalea rostrata ?) on the first known gold coin (1825), to a marine green algae (Caulerpa prolifera ?) on a silver commemorative piece of 1974. Cocoa (Theobroma cacao) seeds we...

During the botanical expedition carried out in Peru by Ruiz and Pavón, later by Raimondi’s explorations and finally by Weberbauer’s, specimens of a Chloraea species were collected in localities around Lima and used to describe Chloraea pavonii, C. undulata and C. peruvi...

Charles Herbert Lankester (1879-1969) was without a doubt the most dominant figure of Central American orchidology during his time. Better known as ‘Don Carlos’, Lankester was born in Southampton, England, on June 14 1879. It was in London that he read an announcement o...

Jean-Théodore Descourtilz (1796-1855) was a well-known ornithologist who produced beautiful illustrated books on Brazilian birds. Less-known is an unpublished manuscript with water-colours of Brazilian orchids, which was adquired by the wealthy French Baron Delessert, w...

Charles Parish collected plants in Burma (now Myanmar) between 1852 and 1878. His orchid collections, both preserved and living plants, were extensive. He sent plant material and watercolour sketches to Sir William Hooker at Kew and living plants to the British orchid n...

We all know that the original intent of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species was for the protection of animals. Adding flora was an afterthought that seemed like a good idea at the time. But it has gotten out of hand, and CITES regulation is now d...

The third chapter of the series about Rudolf Schlechter’s South-American orchids presents concise biographical information about those botanists and orchid collectors who were connected to Schlechter and worked in north and northeastern Brazil, as well as in the three G...