Barbara Everard Interview

A charming interview with botanical artist Barbara Everard, filmed at her garden in Surrey in about 1976 and featuring a self-seeded Dactylorhiza fuchsii (Common Spotted Orchid)  is now available to view online http://youtu.be/dnjWNjeNaPA

American Orchid Society scholarship

The American Orchid Society cordially invites applications
for the AOS/Norman’s Orchids Masters Scholarship

Program
American Orchid Society Masters Scholarship recipients spend two years working on thesis projects related to orchid education, applied orchid science or other aspects of orchid-related science that lead to a Master’s degree from accredited institutions. 

Purpose
The purpose is to encourage Masters candidates to pursue orchid education, applied and fundamental research in orchids; to attract future generations of educators and scientists to orchidology; to address critical needs in orchid education.

Eligibility

The candidate’s thesis project must deal with any aspect of orchid education, applied science or orchid biology in the disciplines of physiology, molecular biology, structure, systematics, cytology, ecology or evolution.  This scholarship is limited to two consecutive years, during which the recipient will be expected to submit semiannual progress reports, due January 1 and August 1 of each year.  First refusal rights for all publications arising from work funded by the American Orchid Society will be granted to the American Orchid Society.

Identity of Awardee

All grants are awarded to the institution or organization sponsoring the applicant.  No grants are made to individuals.  Institutional indirect costs are not allowed.  No portion of an award may be deducted for this purpose.

Amount Awarded

The fixed sum of $5,000 per year will be awarded for a maximum of two years to an institution on behalf of any given individual.

Application Information

Candidates should submit a current curriculum vitae, transcripts of all college coursework, synopsis of the proposed project or research, a brief one-page statement of the value of their project and importance to the future of orchid education or orchidology, and a letter of recommendation from their chairperson.  One original application should be submitted to the address below as well as an electronic copy to the email address listed below.   Applications for the scholarship must be received by March 31, 2012 with notification of award by May 31, 2012.  Women, minorities and persons with disabilities are especially encouraged to apply.

American Orchid Society

16700 AOS Lane, Delray Beach, FL  33446-4351

Telephone: 561-404-2000 / Fax: 561-404-2045

email: TheAOS@aos.org / www.aos.org

Welcome to our new website

Welcome to our new-look website, launched in January 2012. If you have the old website address set as a bookmark in your browser, please reset it to the new website address: http://www.osgb.org.uk/

RHS Orchid Committee award FCC

A splendid specimen of Phragmipedium kovachii 'Trinity' was awarded a First Class Certificate (FCC) by the RHS Orchid Committee at their meeting in September 2011. The plant was grown and exhibited by the Eric Young Orchid Foundation, Jersey, which specializes in developing and maintaining a world class collection of orchids.

Phragmipedium kovachii is a recent discovery, having been found in 2001 for sale on a stall in Peru by American orchidist Michael Kovach. Its glorious, richly coloured blooms grow to a large size and it has already been used to produce interesting hybrids.

The RHS made its first award to an orchid in 184l but the first FCC was awarded in 1859 to Macodes petola. An FCC is rarely awarded and only to plants of outstanding excellence. A life-sized painting is produced of all RHS Orchid Committee awarded plants, the collection now numbering some 7,000 paintings.

John Gay, a member of the RHS Orchid Committee, has written about his experiences hunting for Phragmipedium kovachii in the December 2011 issue of The Orchid Review, 119 (1296): 234-245.

Details of all RHS awarded orchids can be found in the OSGB Journal and The Orchid Review.

Phragmipedium kovachii 'Trinity'

Night-flowering orchid discovered

An orchid that blooms exclusively at night has been discovered on New Britain, an island near Papua New Guinea. Bulbophyllum nocturnum was discovered by Ed de Vogel, a Dutch botanist during a field trip into lowland forest. The findings have recently been published in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society by him and his co-author, Andre Schuiteman, an orchid expert from the RGB, Kew.

The flowers of Bulbophyllum nocturnum open after dusk and wither before sunrise but this was only discovered once the plant was being studied  in the Netherlands. The genus Bulbophyllum is the largest in the orchid family with over 1,800 extraordinary species.

Bulbophyllum nocturnum
(Photo by Andre Schuiteman)