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DISCOVERED BY CHRISTOPHERColumbus during his fourth voyage toAmerica in 1502, Costa Rica, the “RichCoast,” received its name because theremarkable golden ornaments worn bythe natives led the Spaniards to believethey had arrived at a land rich in goldand other precious metals. Nothingcould be further from the truth. Barrenof mineral resources, Costa Ricalanguished for centuries as theCinderella of the Spanish AmericanEmpire, barely supporting a smallpopulation that, by the t ime ofindependence in 1821, had not yetreached 75,000 inhabitants. Butyesterday’s shortcomings becametoday’s blessings. The peacefulcolonial agricultural society gave wayto a solid democracy, and modern CostaRica has truly become a Rich Coast,boasting more than 5 percent of theworld’s total biodiversity in a territoryof less than 20,000 square miles. Suchrichness is also reflected in orchiddiversity, with an astonishing 1,400native orchid species. In a series of fourarticles, readers will learn how most ofthis orchid bonanza was revealedduring the last century, through thework by Rudolf Schlechter; the GoldenAge of those two giants who wereOakes Ames and Charles H. Lankester;the figures of Rafael Lucas Rodríguez,Dora Emilia Mora and Joaquín García;and the magnificent work of theLankester Botanical Garden of theUniversity of Costa Rica.

Orchids in Costa RicaIntroduction to a Series in Four PartsBY CARLOS OSSENBACH

ABOVE LEFT An emblematic name,

Amparoa costaricensis was collected by

Wercklé at La Palma.

ABOVE Pleurothallis acostaei, which

some authors consider a synonym of

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Pleurothallis phyllocardioides, is a South

American species ranging north to Costa

Rica.

OPPOSITE A tree with orchids and other

epiphytes on Costa Rica’s Pacifc Coast.

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THE ABOVE QUOTE IS CHAR-acteristic of the egoistic self-confidenceof the great German orchidologistFriedrich Richard Rudolf Schlechter(1872–1925), a man of driving ambition,a great capacity for work and aremarkable memory, of whom it is saidthat at an early age had set for himselfthe goal of describing at least one neworchid every day [Figure 1].

Schlechter was born in Berlin, wherehe served an apprenticeship as ahorticulturist. At 19 years of age he leftEurope for the beginning of botanicalexplorations that carried him to Africa,Sumatra, Java, Celebes, Borneo, NewGuinea, the Bismarck Archipelago andAustralia. Of utmost importance werehis explorations of New Guinea (1901–1902 and 1906–1909) where hediscovered more than 1,100 new speciesof Orchidaceae, described in his workDie Orchidaceen von Deutsch-Neu-Guinea, published in 1914.

After having published in 1914 hisstudies of the orchids of the Andeancountries in South America, in 1918Schlechter wrote a general recapitulationof the orchids of Central America in hiswork Kritische Aufzählung der bisher ausZentral-Amerika bekanntgewordenenOrchidaceen (Critical enumeration of theorchids which so far are known fromCentral America), where he enumerated132 genera of orchids with 1,325 speciesfor Central America and Mexico.

Orchids in Costa RicaPart I: The Era of Rudolf SchlechterBY CARLOS OSSENBACH

“Without a good memory it is of no use trying to be a botanist;one had better give it up and be a merchant.” — Rudolf Schlechter

LEFT Rudolf Schlechter (1872–1925) in

the Herbarium of the Botanical Museum in

Berlin, 1909.

OPPOSITE A beautiful miniature, the

warm-growing Notylia pittieri is found near

sea level in the southern Osa Peninsula,

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concluded. While working on hisPrimitiae he sent a great number oforchid specimens (collected by himself,Biolley, Tonduz and Wercklé) to hisfriend Théophile Durand in Brussels,who passed them on to Schlechter inBerlin for identification. I t wastherefore Durand who became re-sponsible for Schlechter ’s lifelonginterest in the orchids of Costa Rica.Among Pittier’s collections were thetypes of Lockhartia pittieri Schltr.,Notylia pittieri Schltr. and Pleuro-thallis pit t ieri Schltr. (= Pths .floribunda Poepp. and Endl.). Afterinitial differences (Schlechter for sometime refused to return the material sentby Pittier), Pittier worked together withSchlechter until the death of theGerman scientist in 1925. In 1906,Schlechter dedicated a new genus ofOrchidaceae to Pitt ier: Pitt ierella(today a synonym of Cryptocentrum).

Pablo Biolley (1861–1908) hadarrived in Costa Rica one year beforePitt ier as part of the same groupof Swiss teachers hired by thegovernment. Biolley established him-self permanently in Costa Rica,obtaining Costa Rican nationality andmarrying a Costa Rican. He died in 1908at the age of 46. Biolley accompaniedPittier during many of his explorationsand made important contributions tothe knowledge of Costa Rican flora. Tohim we owe the discovery of the typesof Masdevallia ecaudata Schltr. (=Masd. tubuliflora Ames), Maxillariabiolleyi (Schltr.) L.O. Williams andTelipogon biolleyi Schltr.

Shortly after his arrival in CostaRica in 1887, Pittier had obtained fromthe government the necessary fundingfor the assignment of a person incharge of the botanical service of theMuseum, for which he chose AdolpheTonduz (1862–1921), who was assis-tant at the botanical garden ofLausanne, Switzerland, and arrived inCosta Rica in June of 1889. For the nexttwo decades, botanical exploration ofCosta Rica was not only closely relatedwith Tonduz, but depended heavily onhim. Costa Rica owes to Tonduz thediscovery of many new orchid species,most of them described by Schlechter.Worthy of mention, among others, areMaxillaria dendrobioides (Schltr.)L.O. Williams, Masdevallia tonduziiWoolward, Pleurothallis tonduziiSchltr. and Oncidium tonduzii Schltr.(= Onc. baueri Lindl.).

From 1921 onward, Schlechter heldthe position of curator of the herbariumof the Berlin Botanical Garden,amassing an enormous collection ofOrchidaceae. Schlechter described, inhis Orchidaceae novae et crit icae(1906–1907) and in the first issues ofthe famous Repertorium SpecierumNovarum Regni Vegetabilis (1908–1911), new orchid species from CostaRica for the first time. He had receivedthese first Costa Rican specimensthrough the efforts of Henri FrancoisPittier (1857–1950), a Swiss teacherwho came to the country in 1887 as partof a group of European academics hiredby the government of presidentBernardo Soto to staff the two newpublic high schools in the capital, SanJosé. But Pittier did not limit himself toteaching. Soon after his arrival he wasamong the founders of the NationalMuseum and the Meteorological

Institute. Pittier lived in Costa Rica until1905 and during these years conducteda systematic exploration of the CostaRican flora that had no equal in histime in any country of tropical America.From these efforts resulted thepublication of the Primitiae FloraeCostaricensis, the first flora of CostaRica, a work that unfortunately was not

Herbaria and Type Specimens

HERBARIA are plant libraries:Facilities serving as repositoriesdesigned to ensure long-termpreservation of scientific plant samples,generally referred to as specimens.Specimens are pressed and the driedplants are then mounted (glued) on astiff sheet of paper. A label, whichgenerally includes the Latin name of theplant, the locality and date ofcollection, name of the collector andinformation on habitat, is attached inthe lower right hand corner of the sheet.Herbarium specimens are useful asreferences for plant identification andfor the determination of plant locationsand ranges, abundance, habit, andflowering and fruiting periods. A typespecimen (or simply a “type”) is thespecimen (actually preserved within anherbarium) that served as the base forthe description and the designation ofthe scientific name of a new species.

Herbaria have a history dating backto at least the 16th century. The firstherbaria were in book form, pressed anddried plants being glued onto blankpages. The earliest known herbaria ofthis kind were made at the universitiesof Bologna, Italy (1570); Basel,Switzerland (1588); and Oxford,England (1621). The largest herbaria inthe world are at the Muséum Nationaled’Historie Naturelle in Paris (8.9million specimens), the Royal BotanicalGardens, Kew (7 million), the New

York Botanical Garden (6.5 million),the Missouri Botanical Garden (5.2million) and the Harvard UniversityHerbaria (5 milllion). The famousOrchid Herbarium of Oakes Ames istoday part of the herbaria at Harvardand contains about 131,000 specimens,of which some 10,000 are typespecimens. — Carlos Ossenbach.

ABOVE The type specimen of Systelo-

glossum acuminatum Ames and C.

Schweinf. Multiple labels indicate several

taxonomists have examined the specimen.

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Karl Wercklé (1860–1924) came toCosta Rica for the first time in 1897, theyear in which his first orchid collectionsare dated. He did not come directly fromEurope, but emigrated to the UnitedStates, where he worked as ahorticulturist in the nurseries of JohnLewis Childs in New York. Childssponsored Wercklé’s first journey toCosta Rica in search of plants andseeds of ornamental value for ac-climatization in American gardens. Asearly as 1899, Childs’ commercialcatalogue described a plant “collectedin the mountains of Costa Rica by Mr.

OPPOSITE Telipogon biolleyi, a common

species, is one of the few telipogons that

can be cultivated under the normal

conditions of a temperate greenhouse.

ABOVE Henri Pittier (1857–1950), the

great explorer of the flora of Costa Rica,

in a portrait by Sava Botzaris, 1942.

ABOVE RIGHT Lockhartia pittieri, from

the genus commonly known as braided

orchids, is another species named in

honor of the great Swiss botanist Henri

Pittier. It was originally described from a

Panamanian plant, but is known today from

most of Central America.

RIGHT Maxillaria biolleyi is a common

species of the high mountains of Costa

Rica. It was originally described by

Schlechter as “Ornithidium biolleyi.” The

genus name was derived from the Greek

ornithos (= bird), because the red flowers

have some similarity with a bird’s head.

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Carlos Wercklé” (Childsia wercklei).In 1902, Wercklé returned to CostaRica, where he stayed until his death.In an article published in 1909, Wercklédescribed Costa Rica as “the privilegedregion of Tropical America,” addingthat, “in truth, it is unlikely that anyother country presents a floracontaining the same number of speciesin a territory of the same size.” Amongthe new species discovered by Werckléand dedicated to him by Schlechter areElleanthus wercklei Schltr., Epidendrumwercklei Schltr. (= Neowilliamsiawercklei [Schltr.] Dressler), Kefer-steinia wercklei Schltr., Pleurothalliswercklei Schltr. (= Pths. segoviensisRchb.f.) and Maxillaria wercklei(Schltr.) L.O. Williams.

Tonduz was the great intermediarybetween Schlechter and those whocollected in Costa Rica during the firstyears of the last century. This seemsto have been the case of the re-lationship between Schlechter and theexceptional orchid collections madebetween the years of 1908 and 1910 bythe brothers Alexander C. and AlfredBrade, German nationals who hadestablished themselves in Costa Rica.Alexander Curt Brade (1881–1971), byprofession an architect, was the driv-ing force behind those collections.Alexander Curt came to Costa Rica in1908 but stayed for only a short time,returning to Germany for reasons ofhealth in 1910 and emigrating later toBrazil (ca. 1918), where he reached gloryas one of South America’s greatestorchidologists. Rudolf Schlechter, inhis Additamenta ad OrchideologiamCostaricensem (1923) dedicated an entirechapter to the collections he hadreceived from the Brade brothers:Orchidaceae Bradeanae Costaricenses.Among the many new species dis-covered by the Brades are Osmoglossumconvallarioides Schltr. , Elleanthusbradeorum Schltr. (= Elleanthus glau-cophyllus Schltr.) and Lycaste bradeo-rum Schltr. “Bradei”, “Bradeorum” and“Bradeanum” are all normal epithetsthat remember and honor the Bradebrothers. But only a few knowthat Liparis fratrum Schltr. (nowCrossoglossa fratrum [Schltr.] Dres-sler) was also dedicated to them (fromthe Latin fratrum = “belonging to thebrothers”).

After Pittier left Costa Rica in 1905and Brade did the same in 1910,Schlechter had to find new contacts inthe country. In 1919 he wrote to

Amparo de Zeledón and Alberto M.Brenes, asking them to prepare newcollections of orchids. Doña Amparode Zeledón (1863–1957), as she wasrespectfully called, daughter of awealthy landowner of Cuban-Spanishorigin, supported the scientific ac-tivit ies of her husband, José C.Zeledón, then Costa Rica’s leadingornithologist , and became herselfinvolved in collecting native plants,especially orchids, which she grew inher large garden in San José. DoñaAmparo reacted with enthusiasm toSchlechter ’s letters, arranging forTonduz to press plants from her orchidgarden and sending Wercklé out on newcollecting excursions. The results werethree shipments of herbarium spec-imens that were received by Schlechter

ABOVE A beautiful representative of this

genus, Epidendrum wercklei, which issynonymous with Neowilliamsia wercklei,usually flowers in October and can be

found at elevations between 3,600 and7,545 feet (1,100 and 2,300 m).

OPPOSITE ABOVE Pleurothallis tonduziiis one of the many species originallycollected near San Ramón. It belongs to

the group of the so-called frog orchids,

because the flowers sit on top of the leaf.OPPOSITE LEFT Kefersteinia wercklei isa rarely seen species from a delightful

genus, originally recorded from the heightsof La Palma.

OPPOSITE RIGHT Masdevallia tonduziiinhabits the warm, moist tropical forests ofthe eastern lowland regions of Costa Rica

and adjacent Panama.

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between 1921 and 1923, and thatwere described as Orchidaceae Ampar-oanae in his Additamenta (1923).Among the specimens received fromAmparo de Zeledón, Schlechter foundthree new genera and 62 new species.Schlechter wrote, in the introductionto his work: “It was under thesecircumstances a distinct pleasure forme to dedicate to the high-heartedsponsor of science, doña Amparo de

THE small town of San Ramón, about30 miles (48 km) to the northeast ofSan José, was called by Schlechter the“El Dorado for the orchid collector.” Atan altitude of 3,280 feet (1,000 m), withhigh humidity and under the influenceof both the Pacific and the Atlanticwinds, the climate of San Ramón hasproduced a diversity of orchids equaledonly by another famous orchid regionof Costa Rica: the heights of SanJerónimo and La Palma, to thenortheast of the capital, with similarclimatic conditions. An orchid specimencollected by Guillermo Acosta in SanRamón was described by Schlechter as anew genus and species, and dedicated tothe town. It was Ramonia pulchella(= “Ramonia, the beautiful” — now asynonym of Scaphyglottis). All thebotanists named in this feature storycollected in San Ramón, although themost important collections Schlechterreceived from that region were those ofBrenes and Acosta.

From more than 400 species in excessof 80 genera that can be found in theimmediate vicinity of San Ramón, oneof Schlechter’s favorites was the genusPonthieva. Terrestrial or epiphytic, thebizarre and beautiful flowers ofPonthieva have a complicated floralstructure, with the lip uppermost,united with the column. More than 25species of Ponthieva are known fromthe southern United States to centralChile, of which six have been found inCosta Rica. Schlechter described twonew species of Ponthieva from CostaRica: Ponthieva brenesii, dedicated toAlberto M. Brenes, who had collectedit for the first time (San Ramón, 1921)and Ponthieva formosa, from acollection by Wercklé at La Palma.Today, the two names are synonymous.

As Reynaldo Gómez, greenhousecoordinator and chief gardener atLankester Botanical Gardens,

ABOVE Ponthieva brenesii, a rare species

named in honor of Alberto M. Brenes.

How to Grow Alberto Brenes’ Ponthieva

University of Costa Rica, relates,Ponthieva species should be cultivatedin medium to light shade (about 40 to 50percent indirect light). They should bepotted in 4- to 6-inch (10- to 12-cm)pots and set on benches keeping aminimum distance of 5 feet (1.5 m) fromthe roof of the greenhouse. Gómez usesa potting mixture of 50 percent coconutfiber, 30 percent small pebbles orcrushed stones (no larger than 3/8 inch[8 mm] diameter) and 20 percent of amixture of peat moss, clay and sand.Greenhouse temperatures should bekept as close as possible to the naturalconditions (75 F [23 C] daytime and 60F [15 C] nighttime). Water freely andallow a resting period before flowering(between March and June for mostspecies, except Ponthieva racemosa,which flowers between October andJanuary). — Carlos Ossenbach.

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Zeledón, a new genus, Amparoa, and aseries of beautiful and especiallyinteresting species.” Under these newspecies we find, besides Amparoacostaricensis (= A. beloglossa [Rchb.f.]Schltr.) , Cycnoches ampa-roanumSchltr., Dichaea amparoana Schltr. (=D. lankesteri Ames), Epidendrumamparoanum Schltr. , Gongora am-paroana Schltr. , Pleurothallis am-paroana Schltr. and Scaphyglottis

amparoana (Schltr.) Dressler (=Hexisea amparoana [Schltr.] Ames, F.T.Hubb and C. Schweinf.).

Alberto Manuel Brenes (1870–1948)was born in the small town of SanRamón, and studied in Costa Rica until1890, when he left Central America forEurope. He spent a short time in Parisand from there went on to Lausanne,Switzerland, where he studied for oneyear at the university followed by atime in Geneva, where he stayed until1898, taking courses in botany andnatural history. Botanist of the NationalMuseum for many years, he continuedbotanical explorations after Pittier leftthe country in 1905. In 1920 Brenesbecame the head of the botany sectionat the Museo Nacional, a position heheld until 1935. At that time, Brenes hadaccumulated an herbarium of over 20,000specimens which, for the quantity andquality of its materials, had no equal inCentral America. His collections cameprimarily from the region of San Ramónde Alajuela. From there he sentSchlechter a large collection of orchidsin 1922. Schlechter described thiscollection in his work about Costa Ricaunder the title of Orchidaceae Bre-nesianae and highlighted the goodquality of the included specimens. Onlythe collections organized by doñaAmparo de Zeledón could stand upto those of Brenes, among whichSchlechter identified some 90 newspecies. Schlechter named a new genusafter him (Brenesia, now a synonym ofPleurothallis) and a great number ofspecies, such as Elleanthus albertiiSchltr. (= Elleanthus hymenophorus[Rchb.f.] Rchb.f.), Ponthieva brenesiiSchltr. and Trichocentrum brenesiiSchltr. (= Trichocentrum capistratumLinden and Rchb.f.).

OPPOSITE TOP LEFT The beautiful

terrestrial orchid Crossoglossa fratrum is

named in honor of the two Brade brothers.

It can be found from Nicaragua to Panama.

OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT Amparo de Zeledón

(1863–1957), the orchid lady from Costa

Rica.

OPPOSITE BELOW LEFT Pleurothallis

wercklei is considered synonymous with

Pleurothallis segoviensis.

OPPOSITE BELOW RIGHT Pleurothallis

amparoana is also known under the names

Specklinia amparoana and Stelis pilosa. It

is commonly called the pelican, because

the united lateral sepals resemble the beak

of this bird.

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We come finally to GuillermoAcosta (1878–1955). He had been sentby his family to London, where hestudied business administration,returning to Costa Rica to manage thefamily’s considerable fortune. Acostasporadically collected orchids and senta small collection to Schlechter, whodescribed it in his Additamenta (1923)under the title of Orchidaceae novaeet rariores collectorum variorum inCosta Rica collectae. In this collection,Schlechter found a new genus, which hededicated to don Guillermo, Acostaea,and several new species, such asLepanthes acostaei Schltr. (= L.blepharistes Rchb.f.) , Maxillariaacostae Schltr., Pleurothallis acostaeiSchltr. (= Pths. phyllocardioides Schltr.)and Scaphyglottis acostae (Schltr.) C.Schweinf.

Rudolf Schlechter died onNovember 15, 1925, from a tropicaldisease that had troubled him since thetravels of his youth. His largeherbarium, into which the collectionsof Kraenzlin and Mansfeld (who tookhis position after his death) were later

incorporated, was completely des-troyed during an Allied bombardmentin March, 1943. Only those specimensthat were on loan to other institutionsescaped the fire, plus a series of copiesthat Schlechter had prepared on behalfof Oakes Ames, at that time director ofthe Botanical Institute of the Universityof Harvard, in Massachusetts. AfterSchlechter’s death, his wife Alexandracontinued with this work.

AcknowledgmentsI would like to thank Franco Pupulin for

his great photographs, the Archives of theBotanical Museum in Berlin and ReynaldoGómez for his introduction to the cultivationof Ponthieva.

ReferencesOssenbach, C. 2003. Breve Historia de la

Orquideología en Costa Rica. Editorial dela Universidad de Costa Rica.

Reinikka, Merle A. 1995. A History of theOrchid. Timber Press, Portland.

Schlechter, R. 1923. Additamenta adOrchideologiam Costaricensem. Reper-torium specierum novarum regnivegetabilis, XIX, Berlin.

Senghas, K. 2003. Bibliographie derOrchideenkunde und Rudolf Schlechter —Biographie. Parey Buchverlag, Berlin.

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Carlos Ossenbach is a researchassociate at Jardín BotánicoLankester, University of Costa Rica.Since 1998, he has worked on a largeproject of documentation, the Biblio-graphical Guide to the Orchids of CostaRica. In 2003, he published for theUniversity of Costa Rica Press a BriefHistory of Costa Rican Orchidology. Hewas one of the coordinators of the2nd Seminar of Orchidology andConservation and the 1st Inter-national Conference of NeotropicalOrchidology held at the University ofCosta Rica in 2001 and 2003,respectively He is now working on thehistory of orchidology in CentralAmerica, and preparing the 3rdInternational Orchid ConservationCongress (IOCC), to be held in SanJosé in March 2007. Jardín BotánicoLankester, Universidad de CostaRica, PO Box 1031-7050 Cartago,Costa Rica, Central America (e-mailcaossenb@racsa.co.cr).

WWW.AOS.ORG JANUARY 2006 ORCHIDS 37

OPPOSITE LEFT Dichaea amparoana,

often considered a synonym of Dichaea

lankesteri, was recently rediscovered in

Costa Rica. As with all species of Dichaea,

grow it in intermediate temperatures and

humid conditions. Never expose the plants

to full sunlight.

OPPOSITE TOP RIGHT Scaphyglottis

acostae was first described by Schlechter

as Hexadesmia because of the six pollinia.

OPPOSITE RIGHT Maxillaria acostae is

one of the six new species, all collected in

the vicinity of San Ramón, named by

Schlechter in honor of G. Acosta.

ABOVE The Herbarium in Berlin after its

destruction in March 1943.

LEFT Widespread from Mexico through

Panama, Isochilus amparoanus

(= I. chiriquensis) should be grown in cool

to intermediate temperatures.

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