Orchid Memories – A Tribute to Gunnar Seidenfaden
By K.S. Manilal & C. Sathish Kumar (Editors) – (2004)
265 pages, art paper with 40 colour photos through the book plus another 95 colour photos at the back; 12 black & white photos and plates; 6 maps and geographic illustrations; 28 tables; 38 line drawings & illustrations.
Hard Cover. 29cm x 21.8cm
ISBN 81-900324-6-1
Mentor Books, D-37 Jawahar Nagar,
Calicut for the Indian Association for Angiosperm Taxonomy (IAAT),
University of Calicut, Calicut – 673 635, India.
Although this nice book was published some years ago, back in 2004 in fact, it has only recently come to my attention and being a dedication to the late legendary orchid botanist Gunnar Seidenfaden, I thought it might be helpful to remind/let people know of this very useful book’s existence.
The book itself is made up of a compilation of 18 articles and papers written by well known orchid authorities and authors such as Henrik Pedersen, Phil Cribb, Paul Ormerod and Sathish Kumar among many others dedicating their articles and papers to Seidenfaden’s memory.
The book opens with a brief but informative chapter on Gunnar Seidenfaden’s life and amazing work history and contributions to our natural history not just in the taxonomy of the Orchidaceae but also contributions to Arctic exploration and research and as a diplomat. This section is accompanied by 2 large colour photos of the great man and 3 smaller photos plus 2 colour photos of rarely seen vandoid orchids Seidenfadeniella rosea and S. filiformis a genus established in his honour.
The 18 articles and papers that follow vary in subject matter across a broad geographical range from Brazil to Asia to India to Papua New Guinea and even North West Russia. They are all good papers and I will briefly outline a few of special note.
The first being the opening tribute from Henrik Pedersen on ‘The Seidenfaden Orchid Collections In Copenhagen – Their Origin, Arrangement And Utilization’. Pedersen briefly outlines his relationship with Seidenfaden and how Seidenfaden used to express his concerns about the future of his huge scientific orchid collection of some 11,000 spirit specimens, 3,000 line drawings and sketches (many unpublished), more than 8,000 photographic slides, thousands of photo copies, many draws of files and the list goes on and on, not to mention the huge living collection from expeditions conducted over many decades held at the Botanical Garden University of Copenhagen, once he had passed away. Pedersen outlines the future of these unique collections and how they can be made available for study etc. through the correct channels thanks to a very generous donation left by Seidenfaden’s estate.
Other interesting and informative articles include one by Phil Cribb on the invaluable uses of the 52 volumes of orchid paintings and illustrations of the famous ‘’John Day Scrap Books’’ from the 1800’s whom worked closely with greats like Gustav Reichenbach, probably the greatest orchid botanist ever with some of Day’s colour illustrations reprinted. Another is observations by Paul Ormerod of some obscure Indian orchids and one of the editors (of this book) co-authors an article on the rediscovery of 1500 lost colour orchid paintings of the 19th Century with the article having an emphasis on Phalaenopsis with nice colour reproductions of some of these lost plates.
There is also a very informative article revising the Cypripedium and Paphiopedilum of India with many colour photographs. One paper of great value authored by the editors of this book is on the ‘’Orchids of Kerala, India’’. Really nicely written and highly informative of the taxa studied from that area, which includes many rare and endemic species and a number of line drawings. Among many other article and papers submitted for this book tribute are 2 new species i.e. Didymoplexis seidenfadenii and Porpax seidenfadenii illustrated and described as new in honour of Seidenfaden.
Overall this is a very good book, highly informative on a wide range of subjects within the orchid family with colour photos and illustrations throughout including rare species such as Aphyllorchis alpina and Cypripedium tibeticum and at the back of the book there are a further 16 pages with 95 colour plates of wild orchids including other infrequently seen species such as Ipsea malabarcia, Luisia evangelinae, Aerides ringens, Diplocentrum congestum, Porpax jerdomiana & P. reticulata and Trias bonaccordensis among many others. The only thing I can see wrong is on page 245, Plate – VII the plants labelled Eulophia epidendraea is actually E. graminea and the photo labelled E. graminea is actually E. epidendraea. Other than that easily overlooked editorial typo, this is a great book and worth tracking down through your local book store or online by using the title and the above “ISBN” number as reference.
Rod Rice
Principal Reviewer
Nature & Travel Books