[aroid-l] Orchid Hunter

The narrator of Orchid Hunter delivered one of my pet peeves.  He
distinctly said, "horticulturalist".  Alas, he is in good company; I've
even heard people who work for the extension service say it.

I found this show a bit of a disappointment also.

Mary Elliott







>> just finished watching the NOVA show on "orchid hunter."  somewhat 
disappointing, what did you all think?  i thought mr. hart-dyke came across

as a bit of a jerk.  now what's so disappointing is how shoddy the science 
knowledge of the producers came across.  for example, they seemed not to
know 
the distinction between hybrids and species, as when they talked about
naming 
orchids after mr. hart-dyke's grandmother (which would be a new species
that 
he so desperately wanted to find) and orchids named after elizabeth taylor
or 
barbara bush (hybrids, of course).  another one, the story about the orchid

explorers going to the philippines and one getting eaten by a tiger.  as
far 
as i can find out, tigers never existed in the philippines.  i also felt
that 
they kept throwing lots of generalities about orchids as if whatever they 
were saying applied to all orchids.  and when they were talking about the 
"sexiness" of orchids, they said that the word orchid comes from the greek 
word for testicle, but didn't explain why (the round bulbs of some european

terrestrial orchids - the genus Orchis - that resemble testicles).  and
they 
totally glossed over the controversy over the naming of Phragmipedium 
kovachii.

although the author susan orlean makes some interesting points, as her book

"orchid thief" shows, her science is quite weak.  even better would have
been 
using eric hansen, whose "orchid fever" is a far superior book (although
the 
two books are quite different in focus).  hansen is a much better
journalist 
in my opinion.  maybe he wasn't available...

i think that if i had the chance to go to some unexplored or little
explored 
place, i'd love to do a survey of all plants, not just orchids.  even
better, 
to be able to work to preserve such a place.  

tsuh yang CHEN in NY <<


  E-mail from: Lowell McCormick, 29-Nov-2002
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