Volume 9 No.6 December 1997

CONTENTS

14th Australian Orchid Council Conference & Show, Brisbane
This was a magnificent spectacle and will be long remembered. We present various reports on the different aspects of the Conference and Show, as well as a photographic report. This month's cover features Paph. St. Swithin 'Q'lander' AM/AOC-QOS, owned by Stuart Heyden, which took out Grand Champion prizemoney (sponsored by Orchids Australia). Photograph by noted photographer Gary Yong Gee.

South East Asia - Environmental Disaster of the Year.
Colin Hamilton reflects on the devestating fires in SE Asia during the latter half of 1997 and the massive environmental effects that have followed. He was in Malaysia in August and experienced the beginning of months of fires and choking smoke which blanketed the area for months.

New AOC President
We present a personality profile on the new AOC President, John Harris, of Adelaide. John had previously been Secretary for 14 years.

16th World Orchid Conference, Vancouver, 1999
Advance details of the next World Orchid Conference are released in this issue, as well as information on an official tour for the event. It is not too soon to start thinking about this as it is only 16 months away!

Slugs, Snails and rent-a-duck services.
Eduardo Firpo, USA, gives a run down on various methods of disposing of slugs and snails from the correspondence on the Internet discussion group, Orchid List Digest, earlier this year. While serious information is contained there-in, there is also some light-hearted humour!

1997 AOC Awards of Honour
At the AOC Annual General Meeting, Awards of Honour were announced to two great Australian orchidists, Stan Coleman (North Queensland) and Bob Hodgins (Victoria) for their life long contribution to the development of orchids in Australia.

Paphiopedilum gigantifolium - a new species from Sulawesi.
Roger Kramer reports of this new species from Indonesia, only discovered in January 1997, and described by Braem, Baker and Baker. He also reports on the mis-naming of the same plant by another at a later date. There are photographs and an interesting map of the distribution of various Paph. species through SE Asia.

Selected Species - Paph. hirsutissimum
This month Peter Taylor provides some interesting information on this beautiful Paph. illustrated by a superb photograph of the normal species and the very rare albino form, photographed by David Banks.

Australian Orchid Foundation Award of Honour - Wal Upton
The Directors of the Foundation recently granted their coveted Award of Honour to Wal Upton, another life-long devotee to the world of orchids. Wal is shown standing in front of a massive specimen of Den. speciosum growing on a huge rock. His orchid career is reported in detail.

Dendrobium lawesii - a multi-coloured gem.
Regular contributor, Jim Cootes, writes about this unusual and brightly coloured orchid from Papua New Guinea and the Pacific islands. Great photos too.

Bifid Flower Spike on a Christieara
Colin Hamilton reports on an unusual occurrence in Rockhampton of a bifid flower spike on a mature plant of Christieara Ruth Murai.

The Cymbidium Page - Seedlings are the future.
Julian Coker writes of the excitement of growing seedlings, and the thrill of flowering a "goodie". He should know, he has grown a few in his time.

Reichenbachia Fever hits Melbourne
Brian Milligan is our resident historian of orchid publications. He went troppo when I asked him to review a complete collection of Reichenbachia recently put on sale by an antique dealer in Melbourne. Within minutes the fever had spread with the word. Here Brian gives us a run down on the chromolithographs well over 100 years old, and proudly displays some of his acquisitions. It is sad that the complete set of 192 prints has been 'broken up' but then a number of orchidists have been able to grab a few without breaking the bank!

The Genus Dockrillia
David Banks explains the transfer from Dendrobium to the new genus Dockrillia and attempts to allay the confusion which surrounds it. As usual, lavishly illustrated by superb photography.

Paphiopedilum callosum - Alive and Well in Malaysia
German orchidist Sigrid Grote reports on a trek into the forest in Penang, Malaysia and the discovery of Paph. callosum in flower and with new seedling colonies emerging. Excellent photographs by Sigrid's husband, Helmut.

Orchid Adventures in Papua New Guinea
Ruth Rudkin writes of her expedition with a new tour group specialising in taking small groups of orchid enthusiasts into the highlands of Papua New Guinea and taking copious photographs of the miriad of orchids that abound there.

Plus… All the regular features of what's winning at Shows around the country, Cultural Notes for various parts of Australia, and our list of upcoming International orchid events through to 1999.

Revised October 1998

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