Hi everyone, new to the forum :)

I am a graduate student working on local Cypripedium's. The first part of my project involves positively identifying a population of C. x andrewsii plants by using morphological and genetic methods. This population is particularly interesting because the C. parviflorum var. parviflorum parent is extirpated from the site. Eventually we plan on restoring the parviflorum parent to the site. This is only the beginning stages of the project but I will spare you all the gory details.

I've been growing orchids (particularly slippers) since I was a pre-teen so this line of work was just a natural progression for me. I get to spend all my time with Orchids and get payed for it, what could be better? :cool:

Anyway, I thought I would share some pictures I took while out at one of my field sites. They pictures aren't great but they were done more for documentation than artistic quality :)

C. candidum

http://www.bonsaichat.org/forums/attachments/general/9445d1179716755-my-work-dsc01031.jpg

http://www.bonsaichat.org/forums/attachments/general/9446d1179716852-my-work-dsc01025.jpg

C. x andrewsii These plants were probably back-crossed (naturally of course) to the parviflorum parent at least once.

http://www.bonsaichat.org/forums/attachments/general/9447d1179716973-my-work-dsc01029.jpg

http://www.bonsaichat.org/forums/attachments/general/9448d1179717092-my-work-dsc01028.jpg

and a more normal C. x andrewsii

http://www.bonsaichat.org/forums/attachments/general/9449d1179719114-my-work-dsc01023.jpg

Enjoy!

:hi: so beautifulll flowers :heart:

:welcomesof:

Those are cool shots you got!!! Very pretty!!

Great Cyp shots, Ryan! And welcome to the slipper orchid forum. Thanks for posting!

Very, very nice! Candidum & Andrewsii are two of my favorites. Nice to see them growing naturally in Ohio.

Thanks for posting!

P.

Thank you for sharing such wonderful Cyp pictures with us!

Hi, Ryan,

Thanks for sharing the photos! These are two of my favorite Cyps - from the garden persepective, I have never seen either in nature.

Keep us posted!

Best,

Ron Burch

:welcomesof:
I really like the first candidum!

:welcomesof: OH Ryan - You've made us all jealous - what a great job!

:welcomesof: Nice photos!!!!:woohoo:

Ramon:D

Very, very nice! Candidum & Andrewsii are two of my favorites. Nice to see them growing naturally in Ohio.

Oh, come on Paul! Go ahead and show your monster clump of andrewsii. I'm sure no one will disappointed!

Ryan, thanks for the great shots. Speaking for myself, please DO tell us the gory details. When it comes to Cyps, I like to hear anything specific about them, particularly wild populations. Interesting details like the site conditions, population size, etc. would be wonderful. Thanks!

Tom

I'm glad you all enjoyed the pictures. Please feel free to ask any questions that come to mind.

The population these shots came from is located in a remnant prairie which has a pH of ~8.0-8.3 with calcium carbonate "rocks" scattered throughout the area. The C. candidum has full sun in late April-May while being shaded out by other prairie plants for the rest of the growing season. This population has around 6000 candidum's and 100-150 hybrids.

The hybrids occurr in the border area between forest and prairie and/or underneath old-growth tree's. This population is routinely burned in March or April to prevent trees from invading the prairie.

I am also conducting pollination experiments in order to determine the effect of inbreeding and outcrossing on C. parviflorum and C. candidum. Of all the North American Cypripedium's C. parviflorum has the highest rate of genetic diversity (.63) followed by C. candidum (.30). C. candidum tends to produce clonal flowering stems much more frequently than C. parviflorum in the wild which may be one reason for the increased genetic diversity in C. parviflorum. In other words, after receiving the pollinia off one flower, the pollinator is most likely going to visit the next closest flowering stem. If the next closest flower is simply a clonal stem this will result in a selfing. Over the long run continued selfing will result in a loss of genetic diversity. It was found by Martha Case that the amount of genetic similarity is no greater within a C. parviflorum variety than between seperate varieties. Meaning the genetic diversity of C. parviflorum is not due to the variations in variety but rather is simply part of the species itself. This also suggests that the line between C. parviflorum varieties is blurry, meaning the divergence among varieties may be relatively recent.

Other work includes the construction of a habitat model in order to determine the most suitable areas for restoration. Seed pods which are collected in the above mentioned experiment will be germinated, genetically tested and eventually reintroduced into areas which are flagged by the model as conducive to restoration. In the population mentioned above, this will mean re-introducing var. parviflorum while other populations will be supplemented in order to create a long-term viable population.

Nice pictures

beautiful:cool:

John