Bad at Goodbyes

Rough Transcript

Intro 00:05

Welcome to Bad at Goodbyes.

On today’s show we consider the Fischer’s Phragmipedium.

Species Information 02:05

The Fischer’s Phragmipedium is a critically endangered orchid native to northwest Ecuador, to the Carchi Province, on the Columbian border. Its scientific name is Phragmipedium fischeri and it was first described in 1996.

 

Description

The Fischer’s Phragmipedium is a perennial slipper orchid, whose flower stalk and foliage grow to about 8 inches tall. They have thick roots, that are ridged and covered in fine root hairs, that anchor in forest litter or in rocky fissures. They do not grow in ordinary ground soil; instead rooting in pockets of decaying organic matter, leaf litter, mosses, rotting barks. When a plant roots in organic debris on an old stump, or in the fork of a tree’s branches, they are considered humus epiphytes. When a plant anchors in the accumulated debris in the cracks of a stony cliff face, that’s called a chasmophyte. The Fischer’s Phragmipedium can be either.

 

Here’s how this works. Since the plant does not have access to groundwater they rely on very efficient water intake from fog condensation, ambient humidity, and rainwaters that seeps into the rockface or channel through a tree’s bark. And nutrients, instead of being absorbed from the soil, are drawn from the decaying organic matter in which they root, and from minerals leached from the cliffsides.

 

So, they root in this debris, and have a tiny 1 inch stem from which their leaves and flower stalk emerge. The leaves are roughly 8 inches long and ligulate-linear, so narrow and ribbon-shaped. The leaves are stiff, smooth, medium green and creased at their mid-line forming a kind of V-shaped. A kind of trough or gutter which serves to funnel water directly to their root zone.

 

The flower stalk (the scape) grows upright from the center of the foliage, also to about 8 inches tall, generally holding 2-4 flowers. The blooms are roughly 2 inches across, with broad oval petals that are a deep saturated reddish-pinkish-purplish color. The lower-most petal has kind of bulbous, inverted shape, that curls inward, tapering to a sort of pouch; this is called the slipper lip, the labellum.

 

A short white-ish column topped in yellow grows from the blossom’s center, this is the staminodial shield, a sterile modified part of their reproductive system.

 

Reproduction

The Fischer’s Phragmipedium, generally flowers between March and May, and is pollinated by insects, bee, and perhaps hoverfly and wasp, via deception. So an insect seeking nectar is drawn to the bright showy flowers, but this attractive coloration is in fact trickery; our Phragmipedium does not produce nectar. So, an insect, expecting a meal, lands on the labellum, the slipper lip, which is smooth and waxy; it’s a kind of mechanical trap. The insect loses traction and slips into the hollow pouch below. The steep, slick interior walls prevent climbing back out, so instead guided by light filtering through the rear of the blossom and a kind of ladder of fine upward-pointing hairs, the insect crawls toward a tunneled exit pathway in which they are forced to brush against the stigma, the flower’s pollen-receptive female reproductive organ, perhaps depositing any pollen carried from a previously visited flower. As they continue through one of two exit pores they push past the stamen, the pollen-bearing male reproductive parts, smearing pollen upon their heads or bodies, then onward out, into open air, unwittingly potentially facilitating Phragmipedium cross-fertilization.

 

Note the order there, the pollinating insect is forced to first visit the stigma depositing any pollen from other individuals before receiving new pollen. So this is the flower’s adaptation to encourage cross-pollination and discourage self-polination.

 

That said, the Fischer’s Phragmipedium is also capable of self-pollination, that’s called autogamy. Late in a bloom if a flower is not yet fertilized, the pollen sac (the anther), begins to degrade. Now directly exposed to high environmental humidity, the pollen mass inside absorbs atmospheric moisture, and swells. That swelling brings it in contact with the nearby stigma, self-fertilizing, and ensuring some seed production if insect-mediated outcrossing has, for whatever reason, failed. So, elaborately adapted for cross-fertilization, but able to self-fertilize as a kind of plan B, failsafe.

 

Following successful fertilization, a long cylindrical capsule fruit develops, holding tens of thousands of tiny microscopic seeds. Once mature, the capsule fruit dries and dehisces, splits open releasing the seeds, a kind of seed cloud, to be dispersed by anemochory, the wind and by hydrochory, water. The Fischer’s Phragmipedium often grows on cliffs directly overhanging mountain streams, the seed cloud falls directly into the water, transported downstream facilitating farther seed dispersal.

In The Dream

————

In the dream,

 

That scattering.

Under the clouds, in the low fog,

Thousands of tiny seeds dispersing into

A mist of new life. 

 

A billow of possibility, a plume of promises.

To carry and drift and settle and find purchase.

A haze of new beginnings

wafting on the humid breeze.

 

In the dream.

————

Habitat

The Fischer’s Phragmipedium is native to far northern Ecuador, in the Carchi Province, near the municipalities of Maldonado and El Chical, right on the Columbian border, with some small subpopulations possibly just over the border in Colombia in the Nariño Department.

 

This is the Chocó-Andean transition zone, where the tropical rainforests of the Pacific Chocó region begin to rise, meeting the western-most slopes of the Andes Mountains, roughly three-quarters to a mile above sea level.

 

This is a premontane pluvial cloud forest. So, premontane: these are the intermediate, medium rises, between the lowland rainforest, but before we reach the pure cloud forests at the towering peaks of the Andes. In previous episodes we’ve discussed the higher-elevation Andean cloud forests, which see fairly low to moderate amounts of actual rainfall, and the plant species there rely on specialized adaptations for collecting atmospheric moisture directly from the fog and clouds. But here in this premontane rainforest, this is where the moisture-saturated eastward-moving weather systems from the Pacific meet a significant-enough rise in topographic elevation that they dump their rain.

 

So like the Andean cloud forests, the Fischer’s Phragmipedium’s native habitat sees frequent fog and cloud cover, high humidity, moderate temperatures, but also substantial precipitation, throughout the year. Ambient relative humidity is considerable, keeping steady between 70% and 95%. Temperatures are mild; highs average in the low 70°Fs and lows in the upper 50s°F. Rainfall is pretty much daily, distributed fairly evenly across the year; the region sees up to 140 inches of annual precipitation (that’s like twelve feet of rain per year).

 

We find our Fischer’s Phragmipedium on sheer, moss-covered rock faces, on river cliffs and gorge walls, and among lush, dense vegetation. They grow in moderate to heavy shade on and under an old-growth forest canopy, anchored into mossy cushions, in pockets of decomposing plant matter, and nestled in rocky crevices.

 

Today known populations are found only within a one and a half square mile area.

 

The Fischer’s Phragmipedium shares its premontane habitat with:

Mountain Tapir, Tropical Kingbird, Red-tailed Squirrel, Cape Gooseberry, Western Honey Bee, Bronze-winged Parrot, Juno Silverspot, Sleeping Hibiscus, Shiny Cowbird, White-whiskered Puffbird, Golden Trumpet, Torrent Duck, Pepper Glassfrog, Coleus, Silver-throated Tanager, Pansy Daggerwing, Golden-bellied Flycatcher, Ivy-leaved Toadflax, Rufous-collared Sparrow, Spinybacked Orbweaver, Spectacled Bear, Western Emerald, South American Coati, Woodland Strawberry, Tawny-bellied Hermit, Red Peacock, Pale-eyed Thrush, and many, many more.

 

Threats

The Fischer’s Phragmipedium both historically and today is threatened by human habitat exploitation, destruction, and fragmentation.

 

Swaths of forest in its habitat have been and continue to be cleared for agriculture, specifically for growing Naranjilla fruit. Naranjilla cultivation quickly (within a few years) exhausts the minerals and nutrients of the mountain soils, so farmers are regularly clearing new forest. Naranjilla farming often also employs chemical pesticides and synthetic fertilizers that run off into mountain streams, degrading water quality in general and affecting Fischer’s Phragmipedium seed dispersal and seedling recruitment.

 

The Fischer’s Phragmipedium habitat is also threatened by regional gold mining. Mining clears forest at the mine site itself; destabilizes bedrock and the stony cliff walls where our Phragmipedium grow. Mining also generates dust which affects water condensation and photosynthesis and it contaminates waterways with heavy metals, again imperiling Fischer’s Phragmipedium reproduction.

 

And human induced climate, resulting from persistent over-reliance on fossil fuels, is an imminent threat. Using moderate climate models, this region of northern Ecuador is predicted to see a 4-5°F average temperature rise by the end of the century. Rising temperatures will disrupt the very specific weather systems that are vital to their premontane pluvial cloud forest habitat.

 

The Fischer’s Phragmipedium is also directly exploited. Following formal scientific description in 1996, the species was directly targeted for poaching. Rare orchid collectors and exotic plant breeders paying hundreds of dollars on the international wild flora blackmarket, for a single individual plant. And so by the early 2000s, accessible wild colonies of Fischer’s Phragmipedium had been entirely stripped bare, the species only surviving in its most remote locations.

 

Conservation

Fortunately today the Fischer’s Phragmipedium is legally protected internationally and all commercial international trade in wild-collected specimens is totally prohibited.

 

Most of the remaining population is on privately held protected land in the Reserva Dracula. This is a series of properties owned and managed by the Ecuadorian NGO Fundación EcoMinga. These are intact forests, near the Colombian border. And since an initial purchase in 2013, EcoMinga has been expanding, purchasing new land parcel-by-parcel with support from the Botanical Garden at the University of Basel, Orchid Conservation Alliance, and the Rainforest Trust. This is a private conservation model; holding land to prevent habitat destruction. Their long term goal is to acquire a corridor of protected lands to connect the nearby Llanganates and Sangay National Parks, creating an uninterrupted transect of managed forest, preventing habitat fragmentation.

 

Fundación EcoMinga employs local persons as rangers to actively patrol the reserves, monitor camera traps, maintain fencing, aid visiting researchers, and deter logging and poaching. They also conduct field studies and biodiversity assessments, identifying new species and tracking imperiled populations.

 

Offsite propagation programs are in place at botanical repositories and commercial nurseries, legally cultivating new individuals in an effort to reduce demand for wild-collected plants. And seed banks and offsite living collections are maintained as an insurance population, and for potential future re-introduction into the plant’s native habitat.

 

Conservationists are also exploring legal channels to challenge regional mining practices under Ecuadorian Rights of Nature laws. These are a series of very progressive constitutional decrees, established in 2008, that state “Nature, where life is reproduced and occurs, has the right to integral respect for its existence and for the maintenance and regeneration of its life cycles, structure, functions and evolutionary processes.” In Ecuador Nature itself has legal standing, and fundamental rights.

 

Nevertheless the Fischer’s Phragmipedium has been considered critically endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2016 and their population is currently in decline.

 

Our most recent counts estimate that less than 100 Fischer’s Phragmipedium remain in the wild.

Citations 26:26

Information for today’s show about the Fischer’s Phragmipedium was compiled from:

 

Braem, G. J., & Mohr, H. (1996). Phragmipedium fischeri, a new slipper orchid from Ecuador. Leaflets of the Schlechter Institute, 3, 27–31.

 

Braem, G. J. (2011). A Re-evaluation of the Infrageneric Taxonomy of the Genus Phragmipedium. Richardiana, 12(1), 16-24. – https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/part/273301

 

Braem, G. J., & Tesón, E. (2016). A revision of the Phragmipedium schlimii complex (Orchidaceae: Cypripedioideae). Richardiana, 16, 293–321. – https://richardiana.jardinbotaniquedeguyane.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Richardiana-vol16-28-Phragmipediumschlimii.pdf

 

Broaddus, C., & Robayo, J. (2021). Dracula Transect Expedition: Explorers Club flag report. The Explorers Club. – https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5d69890f65a29d0001afbce5/t/61a647f3829f5f05eaf1b63a/1638287355005/Dracula+Transect+Expedition+-+Explorers+Club+Flag+Report.pdf

 

Dodson, C. H. (1966). Studies in orchid pollination: The genus Phragmipedium. American Orchid Society Bulletin, 35(8), 680–687 – https://www.aos.org/explore/phragmipedium

 

Guo, Y.-Y., Luo, Y.-B., Liu, Z.-J., & Wang, X.-Q. (2012). Evolution and biogeography of the slipper orchids: Eocene vicariance of the conduplicate genera in the Old and New World tropics. PLoS ONE, 7(6), e38788. – https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0038788

 

Jost, L. (2016, October 2). Ladyslippers 1: Biology. EcoMinga Blog. – https://ecomingafoundation.wordpress.com/2016/10/02/ladyslippers-1-biology/

 

iNaturalist – near Carchi

 

Manza, S. (2006, July 13). Phragmipedium fischeri. Slipper Orchid Info Data Sheet. – https://slipperorchids.info/phragdatasheets/fischeri/index.html

 

Matters, D. (2004, August/September). Phragmipediums and their culture. Australian Orchid Review, 69(4), 4-10. – http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/61848580

 

McGough, H. N., Roberts, D. L., Brodie, C., & Kowalczyk, J. (2006). CITES and slipper orchids: An introduction to slipper orchids covered by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. – https://iro.bl.uk/entities/publication/67a9adb0-a256-4643-b05f-b2ef889696b6

 

Missouri Botanical Garden. (n.d.). Phragmipedium (Group). Plant Finder. – https://plantfinder.mobot.org/PlantFinderDetails.aspx?taxonid=264657

 

Rankou, H. 2016. Phragmipedium fischeri. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T43324499A43328089. – https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-1.RLTS.T43324499A43328089.en

 

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. (n.d.). Phragmipedium schlimii f. schlimii. Plants of the World Online. – https://powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:lsid:ipni.org:names:77188197-1

 

Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phragmipedium

 

Zotz, G., & Hietz, P. (2001). The physiological ecology of vascular epiphytes: Current knowledge, open questions. Journal of Experimental Botany, 52(364), 2067–2078. https://doi.org/10.1093/jexbot/52.364.2067

 

For more information about Phragmipedium and orchid conservation in Ecuador please see the Dracula Reserve at https://reservadracula.org/.

Music 28:20

Pledge 36:01

I honor the lives of all Fischer’s Phragmipedium. I will commit their name to my record. I am grateful to have shared time on our planet with this being. I lament the ways in which I and my species have harmed and diminished this species. I grieve.

 

And so, in the name of the Fischer’s Phragmipedium I pledge to reduce my consumption. And my carbon footprint. And curb my wastefulness. I pledge to acknowledge and attempt to address the costs of my actions and inactions. And I pledge to resist the harm of plant and animal kin and their habitat, by individuals, corporations, and governments.

 

I forever pledge my song to the witness and memory of all life, to a broad celebration of biodiversity, and to the total liberation of all beings.