Calanthe R. Br.

Abstract

A popular genus during the nineteenth century, interest in Calanthe waned after the First World War when large private collections disappeared. One usually encounters Calanthe only in collections of specialist growers with interest in terrestrial or species orchids. Nevertheless, there is a Calanthe society in Japan whose members are interested in cool-growing species, and in Jersey, the Eric Young Orchid Foundation is continuing the breeding of Calanthe. In 1856, John Dominy (1816 - 1891), foreman at the famous orchid nursery of James Veitch & Sons, demonstrated that it was possible to cross different species of orchids and produce a flowering hybrid. This first man-made, artificial orchid hybrid, Calanthe Dominyi (C. triplicata × C. masuca) was described by John Lindley in the Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1858 (Fig. 23.1).