The following are notes I prepared from memory, from a lecture given by Dr. Leonid Averynov February 15, 2003 at the NCOS Paph Forum and discussions I was able to have with him after the lecture. Dr. Averynov is a botanist with the Komarov Botanical Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences in St. Petersburg who has worked on the flora of Vietnam for more than 20 years in collaboration with colleagues from the Institute of Ecology and Biologic Resources of the National Center for Natural Sciences and Technology of Vietnam. The notes are sketchy but I felt may be of interest to some. I am still trying to recall more of our conversations, Paph. coccineum and Paph gratrixianum were also discussed, but the details are so far escaping me.
Notes on Vietnamese Paphs:
Paph. delenatii’s location in central south Vietnam is a granite/gneiss mountain range providing an acidic substrate. Accessability is difficult because it is crisscrossed by very deep (300-400 meter) narrow ravines, and impossible during the rainy season as the sides of these ravines become waterfalls. Also, it is a very dangerous place from an infectious disease standpoint: he spent a week in the hospital delirious with malaria after a visit. He said he has accessed two populations, but because of the nature of the terrain he expected there were still other populations existing despite the heavy collecting...He said the plants would be collected and held nearby as they would quickly die if sent to (Saigon) Ho Chi Minh City because of the climate, and then would be shipped out at once in large quantities. Survival rate was low for these and other collected Vietnamese Paphs, in some cases possibly as low as 1 to 5%, because the collectors were primarily locals used to collecting medicinal plants for sale, which were to be dried anyway to be processed into medicine, so care was not taken in the collection and storage. He felt based on information given him by the plant brokers that between 8 and 10 metric tonnes of Paph. delenatii were smuggled out after initial discovery (pricing was by the kilogram, not by the plant). He said that he would put the average at about 18 - 20 plants per kilogram, so that works out to 144,000 to 200,000 plants, but he felt that the ultimate survival rate was probably just a very small percentage of the plants collected. He did mention the finding of album forms of Paph. delenatii, but did not put any credence in the internet photos of the “red” Paph. delenatii.
Dr. Averynov showed in situ slides of Paph villosum growing epiphytically high up in trees, as well as on roots and occasionally in the forest litter. He also showed Paph. hirsutissimum var. esquirolei growing in crevasses on nearly vertical limestone cliffs, with flower closeups revealing very large colorful flowers in the range of 18 centimeter natural spreads. Paph. chiwuanum, with its diminutive flowers with uncrenillated petals also grows in similar conditions in Vietnam.
Paph. helenae was also shown growing in cracks and essentially just adhering to the surface of limestone cliffs. He pointed out that there are different Paph. helenae populations with different flower characteristics, one having brightly yellow dorsals with a fine white outline, and others with a slightly less vibrant color scheme. He felt that Paph. helenae was probably near extinction in the wild.
In undisturbed forest, Paph. henryanum was found in large colonies on south facing steep hill slopes. Where the trees had been cut, only a few remnant plants were to be found on north facing slopes. In discussing this later he said there is a very interesting dynamic between the Paph populations and the forest canopy. In areas in Vietnam where the forest is relatively undisturbed and there are populations of the various Paphs, they will have healthy colonies with a varied maturity status, i.e. there are adult flowering plants and plants that have flowered and carried fruit, as well as various stages of immature seedling in the populations. When the forest canopy has been cut, there is a burst of flowering of the mature plants, but the young plants disappear, and the mature plants appear to “age” and decline to a small remnant population here and there. With the advice often seen to grow our plants in as bright a light as possible, which no doubt does improve flowering, one has to wonder if this may be detrimental to the long term health of the plants. As a side note, Professor Averynov said that the time required to regenerate the forests to the state that the Paphs thrive in once they were cut would be 200-400 years for the forests in the limestone regions and 1,000 or more years for the forest in the acidic substrate regions.
Paph. hangianum was also found on crevasses in steep limestone cliffs, and again he felt this spectacular species was near extinction in the wild, due to collecting and not habitat destruction.
Paph. vietnamense was already essentially exterminated by collection by the time he visited the locality where it was discovered. It was found within four kilometers of a major population center. The locals told him the soft limestone and humus bank he visited would have thousands of blooms during flowering season, but within one year the population was collected so that on his visit he found only two small seedlings left. He said that the area was very moist, and the type of other flora present typically existed in only very moist, extremely humid locales.
Paphs micranthum and malipoense still had several locations where they were relatively abundant, but Averynov pointed out that very nearby over the border in China where they had been discovered a few decades earlier they were now nearly extinct. Again both of these grow in the karst softer limestone cliff areas, with malipoense typically growing where there was a bowl-like depression in the limestone that had filled with debris and humus. He showed slides showing the variation in Paph malipoense var. jackii and var. hiepii.
Paph. barbigerum was also shown growing in situ on limestone cliffs. Again, different populations showed considerable variation in flowers, in this case particularly in color with a very dark flowered population shown in one slide.
Other Paph species shown by Averynov included Paph dianthum growing lithophytically on karst limestone cliffs at 1400 to 1500 meters, the plant shown exhibited five flowers, an excellent flower count for this species. Several slides of quite variable Paph emersonii were shown, again growing on karst limestone cliff faces..Paph purpuratum grows in several locations primarily in the built up litter of the forest floor and lithophytically in karst limestone forests in northern and central Vietnam. Paph tranlienianum was also shown, as well as two very different flowers both identified as Paph (x)hermannii, which Averynov felt represented two different natural hybrids with Paph. hirsutissimum var. esquirolei.
Dr. Averynov’s book on Vietnamese Paphiopedilums done in collaboration with Dr. Phillip Cribb will be available in approximately one month.
He discussed both in his talk and privately afterward the precarious situation most of these Paphs face in Vietnam. Some are in danger due to habitat degradation primarily due to tree cutting. He is encouraged by recent efforts by the Vietnamese government to protect particularly valuable forest habitat and educate the locals, and provide alternatives for work and fuel to cutting the trees. The second threat, and the one that has many of the most desirable species already on the brink of wild extinction, is collection. One gets the impression that Dr. Averynov firmly places the responsibility for this problem on the orchid consumer for creating the demand; until demand was there, these plants existed side by side with the local people for thousands of years, but when poor people who have families to support are paid cash to remove the plants they are naturally going to do so, and there is no way of controlling this in remote areas. To put it in context that may make more sense to us, if we had children who were malnourished and needing medical care, and someone told us they’d pay us to dig up dandelions, we’d dig dandelions like crazy. These Paphiopedilums that we find so intriguing are dandelions to the remote rural people in Vietnam. Much as dandelions are considered native weeds with no special attraction in our world, the Paphs in Viet Nam are, or were, locally abundant, and no particular thought was paid to their potential extirpation. He said that even flooding the market with artificially propagated plants would take a long time to have an effect, and would have to include all Vietnamese Paphs in question, as long as there is a demand for any Paphs, all will be collected indiscrimately, hoping that it is the right one that will rewarded by payment by the brokers. And there is always the problem of those that somehow find the allure of the “wild” plant superior to the propagated plant. Any hope of reintroduction would require completely taking demand for the collected plants out of the picture, then followed by an education program for the locals as well as alternative sources of income to plant collecting and wood cutting. Many of these plants have been found in locales that extend only in the order of 30 to 35 kilometers in any direction, so they are very susceptible to extirpation.
Dr. Averynov also said the situation relating to establishing artificial propagation in Vietnam was complicated, and would require several hours to discuss properly. It revolves around the limited number of some of these plants still in the wild to a certain extent, but more around the deceptions perpetrated already with regard to setting up artificial propagation as a cover to remove huge numbers of plants. The distrust that now exists will be hard to overcome.
Regards, Bob & Lynn
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