chasing old orchid name

[Jeff Hapeman]

>Two questions:
>
>1. Can anyone tell me if Pogonia pendula (aka Arethusa parviflora, Arethusa
>trianthophoros, Arethusa pendula, Triphora pendula) is a synonym for Triphora
>trianthophora? It is described (1825 botanical magazine) as North American
>(Canada to Georgia) with "elegant little pendulous white and pink flowers"
> but my search of meagre available resources and Grays via gopher don't pair
>these names with Tt.


Yes, these names are old synonyms for Triphora trianthophora (Swartz)
Rydberg.  An excellent place to find synonymy for orchids is in Luer's book
"The Native Orchids of the United States and Canada," published by the New
York Botanical Garden.  While this *excellent* volume (full of fabulous
color photos of all but one or two species found in the region) is out of
print, as  late as last October, copies were available for the bargain
price of $35 from the publisher, the New York Botanical Garden.  I would
call them and get a copy while it's still available.  Correll's "Native
Orchids of North America," available through the American Orchid Society
(and probably elsewhere) also provides synonymy, but the info is not as
extensive as that in Luer.

>
>2.  Since I sporadically come up with these problems (being a collector of
>antique prints of non-tropical NA orchids) are there Internet searchable
>sites that would have the extensive historical taxonomic information that
>would help me?  I checked the Flora of NA but orchids didn't seem to be
>searchable and as I noted, Gray's Herbarium didn't have any of these names as
>synonyms for for any of the Triphora trianthophora ssp in the gopher file.
>I prefer to do my own rooting around rather than bothering busy people.

I don't know of any other Internet searchable sites.  One computer-based
option is the Index Kewensis, which is available on CD-ROM.  Perhaps Drexel
or the Univ of Pennsylvania would have that source available, but I pretty
sure you would have to go visit a computer (that is, I don't believe that
you can find it on-line anywhere).

Hope this info was helpful.

Jeff

Jeff Hapeman
Department of Botany
University of Wisconsin-Madison
430 Lincoln Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Ph (608)-262-4422  FAX (608)-262-7509
E-mail: jhapeman at macc.wisc.edu or jhapeman at students.wisc.edu