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The Arizona Orchidist Published monthly by The Orchid Society of Arizona, Inc. Founding Editor- Clarence S. Lindsten November Program 1966 Volume 42 November 2006 Number 11 Problems with Phalaenopsis Culture and NEXT OSA MEETING How to Solve Them The November meeting will be held at the Our speaker, BOB GORDON, is the eminent Phalaenopsis "evangelist" Arizona State Veteran Home who has written several best-selling orchid culture manuals and a book of tips on garden writing for newsletters and magazines. (see map for directions) Bob is a retired US Air Force Officer who lives with his wife, Alice, on a The next regular society meeting will mountain top near Running Springs, CA. His Curriculum Vitae includes: be Monday, November 6, 2006 "Past President (several times) of the California Riverside-San Bernar- dino Counties Orchid Society" and Honorary Member of OSA for 25 at 7:00 P.M. years. OSA meetings are open to all plant enthusiasts He spoke at our November, 2003 meeting, and we are pleased that he Refreshments will be provided. has agreed to return...especially since he and Alice probably still have jet lag after their trip to Scotland! Bob encourages growers to ask ques- This month beverages tions, so have ready your Phal culture questions! will be provided by Marleny Castillo Newer OSA members might be interested to know that Bob DONATED snacks by at least 6 CASES of his books for use in our school programs! Jim Lauck and Diana Sibley Welcome back, Bob and Alice! Refreshment Coordinators: W. Stimmell Barbara Parnell (480) 948-0714 Mary Gannon (623) 878-4173 OSA BOARD MEETING The next OSA board meeting will be held at 1:00 PM November 19th at the home of Julie Rathbun Board Meetings are open to all members GROWER ON CALL Teddy Cohen taylor [email protected] From the President’s Desk Julie Rathbun Those who were unable to attend our October 2 meeting missed an excellent PowerPoint presen- tation by Eric Elsberry AND snacks made with VANILLA by Patty Elsberry. In addition to the snacks provided by those who had signed up to bring refreshments for our October meeting, Patty's snacks were a wonderful, tasty surprise! Thanks, Patty! And thanks to everyone who brings refreshments for our meetings! On October 6, Jim Lauck, Keith Mead, Wilella Stimmell, and I traveled to the Morongo Basin Or- chid Festival, in Landers, CA. A detailed article about the festival will be featured in our December newsletter and will be written by our Editor (otherwise known to our readers as "ed"). The reason that I am abbreviating my usual monthly column in this issue is to allow sufficient space to include the entire, outstanding article written by Gustavo Romero about his recent, successful expedition to Venezuela. Reminder: Our November 6 meeting will be held in Liberty Hall at the Arizona State Veteran Home (a map to ASVH is included in this newsletter), and our election of officers and trustees for 2007 will take place during our meeting. See you on November 3rd for show set-up, on November 4th and 5th for our show, AND at our meeting on November 6th! COMMUNITY SERVICE SCHEDULE Wilella Stimmell, CSP Coordinator On NOVEMBER 17, OSA's school program team will travel to Yuma where we will present 3 hands-on programs in the afternoon for 5th grade science students at DESERT MESA ELEMEN- TARY SCHOOL. On NOVEMBER 18, we will present morning, hands-on programs at the YUMA COUNTY COOPERATIVE EXTENSION. Children who will participate in our programs include 4- H members, Junior Garden Club members, and Girl Scouts. Members of the YUMA ORCHID SOCIETY will assist OSA's program team. A report on the Yuma programs will appear in our January, 2007 newsletter. OCTOBER RAFFLE TABLE DONORS Bob MacLeod, Julie Rathbun, Cynthia Schnitzer and Wilella Stimmell Thank you ! Page 2 Attention All Members! The Arizona Orchidist is published monthly by the Want to have a really good time and help our or- Orchid Society of Arizona, Inc. ganization at the same time? Of course you do! Direct Inquiries to our website at: Well here is your chance! Our ANNUAL ORCHID www.orchidsocietyaz.org SHOW ( November 4th and 5th ) needs your help in putting on a great show this year. Our theme is “ Or to any of the Board Officers or Trustees: An Oasis of Orchids” so if any of you have any Egyptian –type ornaments or decorations (not valuable) or stuffed animals such as camels that Board of Directors for 2006 we could use in our display please let us know and be sure that you put your name on the bottom so President (602) 843-0223 we know who to give them back to! Julie Rathbun jandfentaol.com Equally important, we also need your display First Vice President (480) 722-9328 plants! And finally WE NEED YOU to help set up the vignettes on Friday, November 3rd, starting at Aaron Hicks [email protected] noon, to work one or more “shifts” during the show, In House Program Chairman and to dismantle the show on November 5th at 3 P.M. Second Vice President (480) 785-2251 Joe Bacik [email protected] Please call Barbara Parnell at (480) 948-0714 or email at [email protected] to let her know Outside Speaker Program Chairman how you can help Barbara Secretary (928) 476-2220 Teddy Cohen [email protected] DECEMBER 4TH AUCTION Treasurer (480) 947-8479 Wilella Stimmell [email protected] Generally, when your board sends out an appeal to members it is for your time…..time to help set Librarian (602) 803-6889 up the show …...time to work the show…..time to dismantle the show. Lou Ann Remeikis [email protected] This appeal, however, is for “things”. Things to auction at the Annual December Fund Editor (505) 898-0975 Raising Auction ( aka “the Holiday Party”) Keith Mead [email protected] This popular annual event is one of our major fund Trustees raising activities and the proceeds allow us to con- Jim Lauck (623) 742-6574 tinue our educational programs. [email protected] We need you to donate plants, plant related items, Bob MacLeod (623) 935-4059 orchid theme “things” to be auctioned. Don’t be Barbara Parnell (480) 948-0714 afraid to contact businesses you patronize and ask for a donation. Remember we are a 501 (c) (3) 2006 Show Chair [email protected] non-profit organization and donations are for a Jennifer Schmitt (602) 996-9833 good cause. [email protected] Then we need you to attend the meeting and bid, bid,bid. What a wonderful way to Holiday shop The Orchid Society of Arizona, Inc. is a non-profit 501 (C ) (3) …….and the food is great too! organization dedicated to community service and the study of orchids. It is affiliated with the American Orchid Society, Look for more information about the auction in the The Orchid Digest Corporation, the Arizona Federation of Gar- December newsletter. den Clubs, Inc. The Nature Conservancy. ed Page 3 SECOND EXPEDITION TO CERRO MESAQUE, AMAZONAS STATE, VENEZUELA 11 July-2 August 2006 I am happy to report that our second expedition to Cerro Mesaque was completed successfully. As in previous trips, we faced several unforeseen "complications". Nevertheless we were able to complete all of our goals within the scheduled time. In fifteen field days we documented 111 orchid species, either photographi- cally and/or as herbarium material, including two species I had never seen in the study area and five species that were found in flower for the first time. The objective of the expedition was to continue the orchid inventory of the Yavita-Maroa road and sur- rounding areas, which includes the Atacavi River, a botanically poorly studied tributary of the Atabapo River, part of the Orinoco River basin. Ultimately, we would like to include in our sampling of Orchidaceae the entire Municipio Maroa, one of the municipalities of Venezuela's Amazonas state that covers 14,250 square Kilome- ters (5,500 square miles) and has approximately 1,722 inhabitants. This is the first concerted effort to complete a total inventory of an orchid flora in the lowlands of the Amazon1. Last year, our group became the first scientific expedition to reach Cerro Mesaque, an impressive gran- itic mount or inselberg2, located in the headwaters of Caño Mesaque, a tributary of the Atacavi River. In June- July 2005, however, reaching this mountain was difficult and, due to time constraints, we were able to spend but a few hours exploring its northernmost portion. This time, we were able to explore it much more extensively, finding a total of 66 orchid species (versus eleven species found in July, 2005). As in previous expeditions (see The Arizona Orchidist for May 2005, November 2005, and May 2006), I traveled from Boston to Caracas, then to Puerto Ayacucho, the capital of Venezuela's Amazonas state, and finally to Maroa, the capital of Municipio Maroa. This time, however, I was able to fly from Caracas to Puerto Ayacucho, rather than taking a bus (a new Venezuelan airline, CONVIASA, operates DeHavilland Dash 7 STOL airplanes, which cover this route in 2 hours. The bus trip takes 16-24 hours!), and our flight to and from Maroa was made in a spacious Cessna 207, rather than in the cramped Cessna 185 that we hired in the past. Before traveling to Maroa I had a chance to look for a species of Habenaria that some years ago I col- lected south of Puerto Ayacucho. The specimens collected at that time, however, were somehow misplaced in the local herbarium and cannot be located.