Natural pollinators

[Dokmai Garden]

Dear friends,

Would anyone know about literature dealing with pollinators of Southeast Asian orchids? My new crush is Vanda denisoniana http://www.dokmaidogma.wordpress.com

...and an Orchid Ark scout knows about a place in the wild with hundreds of this enchanting but endangered orchid. We wish to study natural pollinators at night, but any advice beforehand would be useful. Eventually we wish to grow the host plant of the pollinator in addition to the orchid.

Cheers, Eric Danell, Dokmai Garden

 

[mormodes]

Since your current interest is V dennisoniana it might be good to talk to Martin Motes of Motes Orchids and Bob Fuchs of R F Orchids since they both deal with this species alot. They both live in Florida, USA and have email addresses. Sorry you'll have to google their addresses, I don't know them ofhand. I have found both to be willing to share their knowledge, especially whan asked a specific question like What's V dennisoniana's pollinator

 

[Rick]

Finding a single definitive text for SE Asian orchids and all their pollinators will not happen.

There are thousands of orchid species, and probably less than 10% of pollinators are known (at the species level).

You might be able to find something more generic like Vandas = bees, Bulbos = flies, Paphs = hover flies. But this probably isn't the detail you are looking for.

Since most vandas are brightly colored and diurnal fragrant, with easy landing lip, best guess is a bee of some species for your Vanda of choice. But in the tropics there are very many bee species. Your article says that denisoniana is night fragrant (surprise to me), which generally indicates a moth of some type. Most angrecoids are in this group. Since most moths do not feed then you are limited to a handful of species, such as sphinx moths, that do feed as adults.

Vandas are pretty popular and showy flowers, so this one may be known to science. If you have the opportunity to conduct your own study, there are some methods that are getting pretty good (including use of sticky traps and sticky trap glue on the flower lip). Getting a photo of an insect leaving with a pollinia attached is probably the best, next to actually catching one on a sticky trap with pollen stuck on it. I need to send you a paper on a study conducted on Cyps in southern China.