LANKESTERIANA 21(2): 157–233. 2021. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.15517/lank.v21i2.47581 RUDOLF SCHLECHTER’S SOUTH-AMERICAN ORCHIDS IV. SCHLECHTER’S “NETWORK”: VENEZUELA AND COLOMBIA CARLOS OSSENBACH1,2,4 & RUDOLF JENNY3 1Orquideario 25 de mayo, Sabanilla de Montes de Oca, San José, Costa Rica 2Jardín Botánico Lankester, Universidad de Costa Rica, Cartago, Costa Rica 3Jany Renz Herbarium, Swiss Orchid Foundation, Basel, Switzerland 4Corresponding author:
[email protected] ABSTRACT. The fourth chapter of the series about Rudolf Schlechter’s South-American orchids again presents abridged biographical information about the botanists and orchid collectors that formed part of Schlechter’s South-American network and who travelled and worked in those countries on the continent’s northern and Caribbean coasts, through Venezuela and Colombia. In the case of Colombia, we cross the isthmus of Darien and arrive for the first time on the Pacific coast of South America. As in other chapters, brief geographical and historical introductory outlines are presented for each of these countries, followed by a narrative on those orchidologists who visited the area, chronologically by the dates of their botanical collections. KEYWORDS/PALABRAS CLAVE: biography, biografía, history of botany, historia de la botánica, Orchidaceae Venezuela. In March 1498, Christopher Columbus and to the south and southeast across the Orinoco sailed past the Orinoco delta during his third voyage River basin (Fig. 5–7); and the Venezuelan Guiana and continued into the Gulf of Paria. Columbus Highlands, limited to the east and south by Guyana described the new territory as la tierra de Gracia and Brazil, respectively.