🌿A Beautiful Complexity: Orchids & Orobanches of Southern Europe
🌿A Beautiful Complexity: Orchids & Orobanches of Southern Europe – Teresa Gagné & Denis Laplante
When picturing orchids in their native habitat, we are more likely to think of tropical rainforests than grassy European meadows. But the Orchidaceae are a diverse and widespread family, whose 28,000 species range from Greenland to southern Patagonia. While epiphytic tropical orchids often perch out of sight, high in the tree canopy, terrestrial temperate-zone orchids are usually much more accessible.
This illustrated talk will showcase the variety, beauty and complexity of the terrestrial orchids of southern France & Spain. During a 6 week visit in May and June 2018, the presenters saw and photographed over 45 varieties of orchids. Among them were bizzare lizard & tongue orchids, the fragrant vanilla orchid, spectacular woodcock and bee orchids, and members of another oddball family the Orobanchaceae.
NV members Denis Laplante & Teresa Gagné are botanical field naturalists, who happened upon their first European orchids during a cycling trip to Brittany over 40 years ago.
Tea and cookies will be served from 7 to 7:30 pm. There will be opportunity for plant identification.
Note: Elizabeth Mancini’s talk “An illustrated introduction to the history and techniques of European botanical illustration in watercolour” had to be postponed to Fall 2019.
