London Orchid Society News Proud members of the Canadian Orchid Congress & the American Orchid Society May 2016 Edition

A Note From the Editor We would like to extend a big Thank You to Russ, from New Vision Orchids, for coming up and giving us a great talk about the many different orchids that they specialize in (Phalaenopsis and Odontoglossums) - as well as the many wonderful plants he brought up for us to buy! They were phenomenal! Just a reminder - this is technically our last meeting until September. Next month is our bus trip to Crystal Star Orchids so there will be no formal meeting. If you are interested in going please make sure you sign up at next weeks meeting if you haven't yet! It will be a great trip with a great tour of their greenhouse and plenty of opportunity to buy some plants from them! We have Glen Decker, from Piping Rock Orchids, from Galway, New York. He will be talking to us about the orchids they grow and specialize in - Paphiopedilums and Phragmipediums. He will be bringing all the plants that we ordered, plus possibly a few extras to sell to those who were unable to get an order in on time. I may have ordered 5 new ones to add to my collection of 55, to replace to ones that I lost, of course!! Don't forget your money!

March Meeting May 22, 2016 @ 2pm

Check It Out

Exec Meeting Starts 1 hour prior to regular meeting Location Richards Memorial United Church

ChicagoBotanicalGardens on youtube OrchidHuntersAustralia on youtube American Orchid Society on youtube

360 Edgeworth Ave. Website londonorchidsociety.org

LOS Executive Team

Show Winners

President Brenda Aarts

I wasn't able to get it into the last news letter - but better late than never! Here are our winners from the Toronto Artistic Show in April.

Vice President/ Program Convenor Michelle Pickell Treasurer/Secretary Jeff Crawford Public Relations Daryl Bycraft Michael Hleba

LOS Displays/Sales Table Jerry Wolfe Steve Lovenjak Show Table Eleanor Sharpe Memberships Yvonne Pieters A.O.S/C.O.C Rep Claire Walsh Daryl Byrcraft Raffle Doris Camps Webmaster

1st - Brassia Res - Michelle 1st - Phrag. Green Hornet - Michelle 1st - Tolu. William Thurston x Genting Angel - Marta 1st - Paph. Fairrieanum x Paph. Hsinying Citron #13 - Yves 1st - V. Rothschildiana - Jerry 2nd - Dtps. Bedford Maki blush 'bedford' x Dtps. Taisuco Peace - Larry 2nd - Paph. Shin-Ying Apple x Ruby Leopard - Yves 2nd - Paph. Toni Semple - Brenda 2nd - G. Phalaenopsis Alliance - Jim G. 3rd - Paph. Kemp Tower - Jim G. 3rd - Pyp. Papillo alba - Brenda 3rd - Phal. equestris - Brenda 3rd - Ctt. Rojo - Michael 3rd - Paph. bellatulum - Marta 3rd - Paph. Winged Flight (richardianum x philippinese) Brenda

Bob Betts

Upcoming Shows 2016

Newsletter Editor Kristen Sybers

~ Foothills Orchid Society Show May 28-29, 2016 ~ The Orchid Species Preservation Foundation of Alberta * 25th Anniversary August 10-18, 2016 ~ Bruse Peninsula Orchid Festival June 3-4, 2016

[email protected] 519 719 4917

Hospitality Vito Debellis

Mailing Address The London Orchid Society Suite 162 509 Commissioners Rd. W. London, ON Canada

N6J 1Y5

Millions of Orchids Are Blooming in an Abandoned Iron Mine National Geographic Published May 12, 2016 Written By: Michelle Z. Donahue

A vacationer heading to Lake Placid on State Route 3 could be forgiven for barely glancing at a group of dilapitated buildings on the way through Star Lake, New York. Those structures are all that remain of what was once the world's largest open-pit iron mine. But hidden in a wooded marsh directly across the street, curious road trippers would find an even more startling deposit: Millions of orchids have been thriving for over 60 years on the blighted industrial waste site. The colourful flowers are growing atop a wetland that formed at the base of a pile of tailings - crushed rock left over when the iron ore is extracted from its surroundings. As a part of her research, graduate student Grete Bader tallied up the plants within 20 predefined plots, and her work suggests wildflowers now cover the hundred-acre wetland. That includes staggering amounts of native terrestrial orchids, such as the rose pogonia (Pogonia ophioglossoides ) and the grass pink (Calopogan tuberosus ). The site also boasts the state's largest collection of threatened pink shinleaf (Pyrola asarifolia) . "A million individuals of any given species is ridiculous," says Bader, who studies conservation biology at the State University of New York's College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF). "But I was seeing hundreds of individuals in each dense patch, and when you extrapolate that up, it's believable. Fungal Friends The former Benson Mines site, just 60 miles (96.5 Kilometers) from the Canadian border,

Upcoming Webinars on AOS You may find yourself asking what a webinar is - if you are I can tell you! It's essentially an online seminar where members of the American Orchid Society give lots of information about different topics. You can generally send in questions is you have any to ask! Food, Sex and Alcohol: The Fascinating World of Orchid Polination Tuesday, May 31, 2016 at 8:30pm Greenhouse Chat with Ron McHatton Tuesday, June 14, 2016 at 8:30pm North American Orchid Conservation Tuesday, June 21, 2016 at 8:30pm

April Raffle Information Thank you to those you donate to the raffle. Your donations are always very much appreciated. If you are interested in some Hostas, I am taking them out of my garden and will be bringing them to the meeting. Please help yourself, I do not want to take them home again! See you Sunday at the meeting! Doris and Nicole 2 Plants from Brenda Plant from Marta Plant from Jim and Lois 2 Bamboo pkgs from Bob and Judi Vases from Patti 2 plants from Rina and Steve 1 plant from our speaker - Russ Vernon

lies outside of the massive Adirondak Forest Preserve in upstate New York. Moose, beaver, otter, and deer are common denizens, while people are thinly scattered. At it's zenith in the 1940s, the Benson Mine pit supplied iron ore for government war efforts, shifting in the 1950s to supplying iron for steel used in the burgeoning auto industry. The relatively low iron content of the ore and the area's remoteness led to the mine's eventual decline, and it was shuttered in the 1970s. But decades of activity resulted in the extraction of hundreds of millions of tons of waste rock. Roughly a million gallons of fuel oil spills also accumulated at the site over several decades but were only discovered in 1988. As late as 2004, fish caught in the near by Little River were still described as tasting like fuel.

An aerial view shows part of the Benson Mines site as it appeared in the mid-1900s.

Bader, along with her advisor and longtime ESF professor Don Leopold, wanted to learn what it was about the tailings site that allowed so many orchids to grow so closely together in this seemingly inhospitable place. Bader's investigation, the subject of her dissertation thesis, shows that plenty of microhabitats exist at the tailings site, allowing relatively clustered populations of orchids to develop. The site also boasts a variety of mycorrhizal fungi, which play a large role in making the orchids more resilient and able to grow together. The fungi grow throughout the orchids'

roots, increasing the plant's ability to absorb water and nutrients. In turn, the fungi benefit from the plants' photosynthetic energy. The fungi are also necessary for the dustlike seeds of these orchids to germinate. "A lot of people think orchids are found in pristine habitats, but a lot of them are found in early successional habitats, after fires or something that opens up a clearing in the forest," Leopold says. In essence, the disturbances at the site may be part of why the orchids are now thriving. "The water here has a unique chemistry that may be an underlying reason for the abundance of the orchids and fungi," Leopold says. But why the orchids flourish in the wetland and not nearby, virtually identical areas is a question that remains unanawered. "It keeps me up at night," Bader says. Still, she adds, the site stands as a "testament to the ability of nature to heal itself." Rocky Future However, the orchids' future on the site is uncertain. An invasive species of reed called phragmites threatens to engulf the entire area. It now occupies almost nine acres and is expanding at a rate of 3 perect per year. Though the Benson Mines orchids appeared and thrived without human assistance, Bader says intervention is probably now required to maintain the site's rich diversity. The tailings pile itself is also a precious economic resource. The millions of tons of granite-based aggregrate rock at and around the mines can be used for a variety of purposes, including infill, pavers, kitchen counters, and fortification rubble for shorelines. No new mining or blasting is anticipated, but a project to rehabiliate a rail line that once connected the mines to Carthage, New York, received $9.9 million in funding from the state. Work is expected to begin later in May, with rail coming back online by next year.

Workers load iron ore into rail cars in the open-pit minearound 1910.

it's too early to say for sure is that's a possibility. And Benson has no plans to sell the property at this point. "We're always happy to work with people if they're interested in selling, and we do prioritize what we think we can do to protect these areas," Drabicki says. "We may look at it and discuss with them, but I can't tell you what the outcome will be." Bader says that no matter what happens to the Benson orchids, "the big-picture lesson learned from this site is that natural restoration is viable and could be considered for other places."

Speaking for the property's owners, Benson Mine Trust, attorney Bernard Melewski says the company was unaware of the orchids' existence prior to the announcement by the researchers, who, to the best of anyone's knowledge, were not given express permission to survey the privately owned portions of the site. Leopold notes that the site's boundaries lack signage and that he, Bader, and others thought the whole ares they surveyed was public, county-owned land. Mark Hall, a former elected official in the nearby town of Fine, has been involved in efforts to clean up the mine site and redevelop it for new industry. He says that the discovery of the orchids is wonderful, but limiting the use of the tailings site for the benefit of the plants is probably not a high priority for area residents. "Not to say that we're not concerned with the environment, but we're an economically depressed area, and poor people need jobs," Hall says. "People are concerned about how they're going to put food on the table or shoes on their kids' feet." Bader and Leopold both expressed the hope that the site might be annexed to the nearby Adirondack Forest Preserve, not only for the orchids' sake but also to retain some of the area's cultural history, in which the mine played an important role. Judy Drabicki, the regional director for the state's deptartment of environmental conservation in St. Lawrence County, says

April's Meeting

Members Corner Check out what our members have been up to!

Rare Orchid's Habitat Protected Winnepeg Free Press Published May 8, 2016 Written By: Alexandra Paul

The rare endangered western prairie fringed orchid, found only in Manitoba, has a secure future now that a conservation group has saved half it's habitat here. "It took almost 30 years to get here and that's working with local land owners, and that's including buying land from the local folks, and working to manage it, to help conserve biodiversity and endangered species like this," said Cary Hamel, the conservation science manager in Manitoba with Nature Conservatory Canada. The Nature Conservancy reported its success with the orchid last week, releasing the news in a statement. The non-profit organization buys up land and works with landowners across Canada to preserve sensitive ecosystems that are home to rare and endangered plants and animals. It holds some 63,000 acres in Manitoba including 20,000 acres of tall grass prairie. The same orchid is also found in seven American states in the northern plains, but the Manitoba habitat is the largest anywhere on Earth, representing 25 percent of the world's population for this plant species. "Since that's the biggest population on the planet, here in Manitoba, that's pretty huge. It's pretty big news for nature lovers," Hamel said. Fixing a plant's habitat isn't as simple as watering flowers, of course. "We try to keep healthy open prairies and we pay special attention to endangered species like the orchid," explained Hamel. Keeping the ecosystem healthy protected the orchid's only known pollinator, a nocturnal moth call the sphinx moth, and paying attention to the water table also meant Sandhill cranes, drawn to the same wetlands, are also thriving. "That's when we started doing the math and relaized in the course of 30 years with our partners we'd conserved over 50 percent (of the orchid's habitat) in Canada," Hamel said. The orchid is showy for a non-tropical plant; it's

fringed white wings spreading around a central orchid hood in blooms that last two, maybe three, weeks a year. Its scent resembles vanilla. To view the orchid means taking a trip to Stuartburn in southeastern Manitobs to the Nature Conservancy's Prairie Orchid Trail, the Agassiz Trail or to the Weston Family Tall Grass Prairie Interpretive Centre in this town of about 1,500, just north of the U.S. Border. Experimental wetland restoration has stabilized the orchid in for low-lying areas of Manitoba prairie called swales, each about 10 kilometres long. They stretch across conservancy holdings and private property. It's most unusual trait is hydrology. This plant will open its blooms and breath under torrential rains, snuggling up to high water tables in shallow wetlands. "It really is linked to the water table. It doesn't occur in dry prairie. If it's too wet it doesn't occur there either. It's in glacial till, crushed up rock but it's calcium rich. Even if you walked around some of these orchid sites after a rain storm, some of these orchids are underwater. You can see the flowers blooming under water. So the sites will flood and then they drain away over the course of the next few days," Hamel said. The orchid is listed as endangered in Canada and internationally, underscoring the significance of the success here.

Monthly Checklist for May and June American Orchid Society Written By Ned Nash and James Rose

Cattleya

The last of the spring-flowering types --- those that flower from a ripened hard pseudobulb --- will be finishing, while the first summer-blooming types will be showing buds on their rapidly growing, soft pseudobulbs. Both may need potting, as signaled by deteriorating mix, this month. This spring bloomers present no problems, as you will be dealing with fully ripe, well-hardened pseudobulbs. They will be ready to root on the mature front pseudobulb and will establish quickly. The summer bloomers, will be brittle and may be in bud. Nonetheless, experienced growers know that inless potted now, they may not root later, as this type tends to be seasonal in it's rooting behaviour. Stake the lead growth to avoid breakage. May can still present some changing light conditions that can lead to burning of the foliage if the plants have not been properly acclimatized. Allow them to build up their tolerance to high light gradually. Changing light and temperatures can also be the source of some frustration when trying to determine when plants need watering. While Cattleyas will be entering into a period of rapid growth starting this month, they have still not built up a sufficient momentum to be significantly slowed by your missing a day or two of watering owing to dark weather. As always, it is safer to err on the dry side than on the wet. It is important, though, especially to the summer bloomers. Too much shade will cause rapidly developing inflorescences to droop unattractively.

Paphiopedilum

The Paphiopedilum Maudiae types will be well into theit season now, so a careful eye should be used toward staking. Do not be too anxious to stake, however. Many of this type, if staked too soon, will develop nodding flowers that do not face the observer. It is better to allow the flowers to ripen naturally, then support the spike right below the ovary for best display. This is especially common in Paphiopedilum fairrieanum-derived hybrids. If you have to do something when you first see the emerging spikes, just put the stake in the pot next to the spiking growth. Not only will this help you, but you will be able to see where the spikes are, so you can continue to pay attention to their development. The multifloral types will be entering their most active growth phase, so lots of light, water and fertilizer are called for to mature their large growths. Many will be spiking in the next couple of months, so be on the lookout for the emerging inflorescences. These may benifit from earlier staking than most, as the inflorescences grow so quickly in some cases that they can be quite soft. Again, best support is right below the ovary of the first flower. This will allow the most natural presentation of the blooms.

Phalaenopsis

Except for the latest-spiking plants, all phalaenopsis should be ready for potting or already potted. Because phalaenopsis are tropical plants, they tend to be seasonal in their rooting behaviour. The critical point for potting is when new roots emerge from the base of the plant. This is absolutely the best time to repot a phalaenopsis. The summerflowering types, based on Doritis background, have ideally already been potted and are becoming freshly established, ready to support their soon-to-emerge spikes for the summer season. Phalaenopsis potted at the right point in their growth cycle will reestablish almost immediately, with fresh roots growing into the new medium nearly uninterrupted. As soon as the flush of new root growth is seen, begin regular watering and fertilizing to make maximum use of the major growing season. Do not get over-exuberant with your watering, though, allowing water to splash between plants. This can be a source of infection for both water-borne pathogens and viral contamination. Phalaenopsis are much more susceptible to virus than was previously thought. Take extra care to keep your collection free of bacterial and ciral problems, which you can accomplish by maintaining a clean growing area.