Orchids!!

A gorgeous Phalaenopsis orchid on display in the Cleveland Botanical Garden. It was one of several thousand orchids that currently adorn the sprawling facility. The annual Orchid Mania show is a great way to escape the dreary blah of our cold gray winter, and tune up for the forthcoming growing season.

Last Sunday, Debbie DiCarlo and I led a photo workshop here that concentrated on orchids and floral photography, as part of our Focus on Photography business. It won't be our last. The workshop quickly filled to capacity (20 people) and everyone got lots of eye candy photography and hopefully learned a lot about making images.

This is the only workshop or tour like this, for us. Everything else is outdoors, focusing on natural landscapes and native flora and fauna. We have some interesting ones this year. See the whole slate RIGHT HERE. We'd welcome you along on any of these, and love to work with photographers of all stripes and abilities.

Following are some of my images taken during the workshop. While I'm fascinated by the Orchidaceae (2nd largest plant family in the world!), I am no expert on domesticated captives and their myriad forms and hybrids. I've tried to name them as best I can, but if you see a mistake, please let me know.

PHOTOGRAPHIC NOTES: I shot everything with my Canon 5D IV, and Canon's amazing and versatile 70-200mm f/2.8 II, with a 12mm extension tube. It works great for fare such as this, and the zoom offers easy compositional flexibility. Our group was allowed into the gardens three hours before it opened to the public. We were allowed to use tripods during that time (they're normally off-limits). So, in the morning we all shot off tripods with no flash, and all but one of the following orchid photos was made that way. Following lunch, we went out with handheld gear, and practiced using flash, to give everyone experience with two very different techniques. The three animal photos at the end were shot handheld, with flash.

Jewel orchid, Ludisia discolor

Venus slipper orchid, Paphiopedilum spp. (this is the only orchid shot where flash was used, in this set)

Paphiopedilum lowii x haynaldianum

Phaiocalanthe kryptonite x Calanthe vestita

Moth orchid, Phalaenopsis spp.

 Moth orchid, Phalaenopsis spp.

Stardust Firebird, Dendrobium spp.

Longwing, Heliconius spp.

Bananaquit, Coereba flaveola

"Bob", an incredible specimen of a panther chameleon, Furcifer pardalis.

A visit to the orchid house

The scene within one of the glassed atria at the Franklin Park Conservatory yesterday. It wasn't a bad place to be, with temperatures in the 20's-30's F, and high winds.

About mid to late winter, I really start to miss plants - green foliage and flowers. One of the drawbacks of living in the north is the complete disappearance of such things for several months. As an antidote of sorts, I decided to visit a place I don't get to nearly often enough, the Franklin Park Conservatory. This is a big plant-packed facility; the artificial tropics come to life right here in Columbus, Ohio.

There are often themes to the exhibits, and right now - thru March 5th - it is orchids.

The massive south wing of the conservatory sports a veritable jungle, complete with water features. You'll forget it's winter in here.

There's even a waterfall (a few, actually), so of course I took the opportunity to practice waterfall photography. I wasn't alone in sporting camera gear - several other people were rigged with serious gear, snapping away. For me, it's good practice for the "real" stuff outdoors.

Orchids are the stars of the show, and they're peppered everywhere throughout the conservatory. I am no expert on orchids not native to the eastern U.S., and the identification situation is muddied by scores of hybrid combinations in cultivation. If you were unaware, the Orchidaceae is perhaps the largest family of flowering plants in the world, rivaled only by the Asteraceae, or Sunflower Family. As many of the plants are not labeled, forgive me my botanical sins should I misname some. This is one of the Phalaenopsis, and there was a dizzying array scattered throughout.

A stunning Oncidium (?) arches from a mossy wall.

I believe this is another species of Oncidium; whatever it is, it is quite the looker. It also had the good manners to grow against a plain backdrop. One of the challenges of shooting in this plant-packed environment is getting a clear shot of the target - competing plants are often in the way. Manipulating the flora in any way is strictly taboo, too. Had I thought about it, I would have brought some "bokeh sheets" - colored paper that can be held behind the subject to provide a more pleasing backdrop.

Yet another Oncidium? Whatever it is, it's cool.

If this species or hybrid was labeled, I missed it, but surely would be interested in knowing its name. It was one of the major showstoppers, and it had lots of competition.

This one and the following may be something in the genus Trichocentrum, but I am unsure.

I suspect many of the orchids in this exhibit are crosses - hybridizing orchids is a huge thing among the fanatics.

And finally, a Paphiopedilum, one of a number on exhibit. I didn't run across these lady's-slipper-like orchids until my time was nearly up. I would have loved to spent more time with them. Well, there's still several weeks before the orchid show folds up, so maybe I will.

If you live in Ohio, and are into photography, you won't be disappointed by a visit to the Franklin Park Conservatory.

Ohio's orchid species can grab attention, but many species are threatened

Yellow-fringed orchid, Platanthera ciliaris

Columbus Dispatch

September 4, 2016

NATURE
Jim McCormac

For the orchidophile, a trip to Colombia’s tropical forests would be living a dream. The country harbors several thousand species. Orchids new to science are routinely discovered.

In the world of flowering plants (angiosperms), the orchid family might be the most diverse: An estimated 24,000 species exist worldwide. The only rival is the sunflower family, which has about the same number of species.

For Ohio orchid hunters, prey is far scarcer than in Colombia. Nonetheless, 46 native species are found in the state. There is probably at least one species in every county.

The range of Ohio’s small suite of indigenous orchids represents an artist’s palette of color. Pink, orange, ivory, emerald, purple and other colors paint a fantastic diversity of flower structures.

Among our showiest orchids are those in the genus Platanthera. There are (or were) 12 Ohio species, and most are big and spectacular.

I recently had the pleasure of viewing perhaps the most spectacular Platanthera orchid of all: the yellow fringed orchid, P. ciliaris. This plant is otherworldly in appearance and sure to stop people in their tracks.

A robust yellow fringed orchid rises to almost 2 feet tall, capped by a robust cluster of dozens of flowers. It is these flowers that cause jaws to drop. Their color is a gorgeous orange-yellow, a hue not seen elsewhere in nature, at least around here.

Each flower is held on a long, slender pedicel. The flower’s lip, or lower petal, is divided into a spectacular brush of fringes, as if it were briefly shoved into a paper shredder. A long threadlike spur juts from the flower’s other end, providing interesting architectural punctuation.

As befits such a showy plant, its principal pollinators are beautiful as well. While I was admiring these plants recently, several spicebush and Eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies were busily working over the colony. Swallowtails do the heavy lifting of pollination for this species.

Yellow fringed orchid is listed as threatened in Ohio, and there are essentially only four populations. Some occur in the Oak Openings area west of Toledo, and reportedly a small population exists in Hocking County. A small colony maintains a tenuous foothold in Washington County.

The mother lode of this orchid occurs in Shawnee State Forest, Ohio’s largest state forest and a site unbelievably rich in biodiversity. That’s where I made the accompanying photograph on my Aug. 7 trip.

Ohio’s orchids are benchmarks of habitat health. Our scorecard is not good. Of the state’s 46 species, eight are endangered, six are threatened and eight are potentially threatened. Two of our six federally threatened plants are orchids.

Saddest of all, four of Ohio’s orchids are considered extirpated: They no longer occur in the state.

Naturalist Jim McCormac writes a column for The Dispatch on the first, third and fifth Sundays of the month. He also writes about nature at www.jimmccormac.blogspot.com.