The Vocabulary of Orchids: an Amateur Perspective
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The Vocabulary of Orchids: An Amateur Perspective. Allen B.Martin © Copyright 2005 A.B.Martin A famous saying: “God, give me the strength and tenacity of a weed.” I’d like to change that from “weed” to “orchid”! Acknowledgments I am most grateful for the use of the World Checklist of Orchids (2003) and the World Checklist of Monocotyledons (2004), taken from the website, with the permission of the Trustees of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. See the bibliography. Phoenix. I could not have achieved my goal without my new friend and next-door neighbour, a knowledgeable amateur botanist and former computer teacher. What a stroke of luck, that fate brought us together. My word-processor had packed it in, I couldn’t get access to more books, was totally computer illiterate and so, my work had come to a screeching halt. He taught me how to use the computer (sufficient for my needs), found and down-loaded the orchid list on the internet (from the Royal Botanic Gardens, of Kew, England) and was always there when I needed him to fix my many foul-ups. I’d hit the wrong buttons, then go cold, “yaaaaah, what have I done?, Phoenix, help!” A simple “thank you” could never cover my eternal gratitude. Mr.Roy Gifford of Umina: an orchidologist of “the old school”, a Bulbophyllum addict and a gentleman. I thoroughly enjoyed our lengthy discussions over the years and am extremely grateful for his generous openness with his extensive personal library. The staff of Woy Woy & Gosford Public Libraries. I’m sure they thought I was quite mad, but you couldn’t wish to meet nicer people. They bent over backwards, far beyond duty, in their efforts to locate books for me. The staff of the Library, Royal Botanic Gardens, Sydney, for their courteous consideration and assistance. The few times I visited the library they treated me like an eminent professor, not like a nobody. Dedications To my dear wife, Yvonne, for her tolerant patience and understanding, as over the years I bounced my ideas off her. She knew what this work meant to me and that I was totally committed (and thinks I probably should be!). To my good friends and collecting mates, Jim Tolbert, Peter Luxford and Doug Digance, long gone to happier (orchid) hunting grounds. I know they would have revelled in being involved with this work. Preface “The Vocabulary of Orchids. An Amateur Perspective.” The title is not to disparage amateurs, it’s because I am very much an amateur and only wish I had the information, that I have gathered and set out within, c35 years ago. Sometimes, there may seem to be a lot of repetition, but each entry is different and I did it especially for those who are looking for an explanation to the way the word is spelt (ie., for line, or finger-followers, like me). Within is my interpretation of a long list of mostly incomprehensible words pertaining to “orchids”. I have tried to translate as literally as possible and give you as accurately as I can, the meaning and/or etymological explanation of the individual words concerned and with most, I try to give an example of its use, creating a useful reference. When you open the book, anywhere, you’ll probably say “Hey, he can’t do that!” because I’ve listed every word alphabetically, regardless of its status. The method in my madness being that I’m not attempting to be botanically scientific, I am simply trying to determine what the words mean. With many good books the author will give a small Glossary, but it never tells me what I want to know, ie. especially, what does the full generic name mean and possibly, why is it so named? This book came about mainly from frustration, as many authors will give with their discussions, a brief, generally accepted explanation of the genus (the first word in the name), but very seldom do they explain the specific epithet (: the descriptive adjective, or the second word in the name). Plus they use so many technical, botanical terms of which the average person hasn’t any chance of deciphering (and believe me, I was very average!). What I need is a dictionary, glossary, or whatever, that explains everything in lay-man’s language and where possible, completely cross-referenced. The old adage: you want something done, then do it yourself. Hmmm., and so the monster grew! Often throughout the text, I am unable to determine exactly what the author is referring to eg., cuneata is from Latin, cuneus: a wedge + with the suffix, means it has some part(s) likened to a wedge. What, or where is the wedge?, if I can find out by wading through the technical description, most times only written in Latin (in which, I had no formal training, whatsoever), then I will notate my entry accordingly. Sometimes an author makes a word relatively easy to understand, eg., cuneilabia: wedge + lip. The labellum was likened to a wedge (shape), good, now we all know what it means. Why is an axis a peduncle and/or a rachis? Why is a raceme an inflorescence? and if so, why is it a racemose inflorescence? I can assure you I almost went nuts over these items and had about a dozen shots at attempting to get them right, I kept on going around in circles. It’s easy to define them separately, but when I grouped them together, they didn’t make sense. I hope I now have them all right, see the separate section on inflorescences, at end of “I”. As I started this list I ran into all sorts of trouble. How can cera be: wax and cera: a horn? aha!, one’s ex Latin and the other, ex Greek. For more confusion the Greek word, keras is “Latinized” to become ceras and is used in combination words (my abbreviation: combwds.) as -cera, -cerum, cerato-, -ceratus, etc.: horn; horned; having, or like a horn, etc. Then to make it even more interesting, 3 or 4 Greek words can be “Latinised” and shortened into one. Ouch, talk about Double Dutch! Please remember I have everything cross-referrenced, so if I use a word you don’t understand, just turn to the relevant entry. I found many things which made me shake my head in wonder... Speaking of worms, did you know they have bristles?, well I didn’t (see chaeta) and that a “sphinx” is a type of moth (see sphingoides), etc. What’s this got to do with orchids?, keep going dear reader... Would you believe, our word orchid, is originally from an ancient Greek word meaning: testes (of interest, see Theophrastus). I thought for sure formosum meant it had to come from Formosa (wrong!); tinea is a nasty smelly growth between your toes, right?, wrong again! Words like fornicatus, vaginatum, etc., I (mentally) gleefully rubbed my hands together and thought “this’ll shock ‘em!”. Wrong, wrong, wrong! However, I laughed ‘till it hurt over cynosorchoides, longipenis and was totally perplexed with the likes of alopecurus, hippocrepiferum, Hexalectris and how about words you know in English, like: echidna, platypus, rhinoceras, mastodon, pelican, etc. There’s so many more named for people, places, fabled monsters, snakes, lizards, birds, dragons, fictional characters from novels, trees, many insects, animals, plants and flowers, etc. Interested in dinosaurs?, we even have a Stegosaurus (see stegasaurum), Triceratops (see “T”) and also included is another small note on a flying dinosaur (a pterodactyl, see Campsomeris). Scattered throughout, I have put in a lot of anecdotes and trivia (there’s another Latin word that’s entirely different to what you think, see trivia, triviale) to try to make it more enjoyable. eg., Do you know the biggest killer of all domestic cultivated plants?, it’s TLC. (see “T”). How many seeds in a pod (correctly: capsule, see “seed”)?, what is the smallest?, what is the tallest?, plus some items you’d not dream of looking for, like “prices” and “plastic bags”(see “P”). There are many hundreds I had to leave out from lack of information and I am a little disappointed as I have only achieved c25,000 entries. So many of the names, I missed are of people and places, perhaps another volume some day? To further enhance the enjoyment of your collection, try this little exercise: list all of the botanical names of your plants and then write alongside the meanings of same. If I have missed any of your pets, then try to determine the meanings by taking bits from other similar ones I have listed. This will help you to learn “correct names”, so that when you’re in company you wont be embarrassed by this type of scenario: “ah, er.., it’s a spider orchid, you know?... The one that....”! Most common names are hopeless as there are probably so many around, all bearing the same “common name”. Another idea, for your club’s newsletter: have an “educational” paragraph (or, page). Get a list from each member and then translate them, a few at a time. I haven’t attempted anything on pronunciation as this subject can take a lengthy book on its own and is well covered by many eminent authors (and when you know what the words mean, they are so much easier to pronounce). To learn the language I suggest you join a club, listen and don’t be ashamed to ask questions. I always found learned orchidists and orchidologists (don't know the difference?, see “O”) mostly very tolerant of (serious) new-chums, as they had to learn as well.