Orchid Hunter

From: Piabinha at aol.com on 2002.11.27 at 02:39:17(9651) 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

From: Lowell McCormick LOWELLMCCORMICK at compuserve.com> on 2002.11.30 at 05:25:40(9669) 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 +More >> 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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