Orchid Species and DNA
July 13, 2009 1:30 PM
Filed Under: Gerry Ward
This weekend an artist friend gave my family a couple of awesome cards. She prepared the originals by exposing a Yellow Lady’s Slipper orchid laid over photographic paper or film negative to X-rays. The results were truly amazing. I wanted to learn more about these fascinating flowers. Orchids fascinate many people. There are some individuals whose passion for orchids is so great that their hobby is growing orchids. These folks call themselves orchidists.
Orchid societies are formed for the exchange of information and plants. These orchidists hybridize and selectively breed orchids. My challenge was to learn more about the wild orchids of Alberta and my first step was to check out the many wild flower books I’ve collected over the years.
I originally read that there were only three genera of orchids in Alberta. I was delighted with that bit of information as I knew that already this spring I had seen and photographed representatives of all three.
I recently saw Calypso (Calypso bulbosa) on a hike near Canmore Alberta. Like all the wild orchids of Alberta, this flower grows on the ground. On a world-wide basis, orchids represent the largest family of angiosperm plants. Many of the showy flower species in warmer climates than Alberta grow supported by leaves or the bark of trees in a type of commensalism. This growth habit allows orchidists to grow their plants hydroponically.
I also came across the tiny little Round-Leaved Orchid, Amerorchis rotundifolia. I had also seen this referred to as genus Orchis, and this caused me some confusion as I was under the impression that the value of the binomial nomenclature was that regardless of the local common name, all scientists worldwide could recognize an organism by its genus and species name. I believe though that this is simply a problem with synonyms and perhaps names in older reference books.
At the beginning of this blog, I mentioned that I wanted to learn more about the Yellow Lady’s Slipper. I have observed this flower growing in many parts of Alberta. This beautiful yellow flower is pollinated by bees which fly into the flower and then can’t get out without becoming totally covered with pollen. The flower books I checked name this plant Cypripedium calceolus. Initially, I was trying to find when this flower was first observed and documented in Alberta. A quick check of Wikipedia though said that Cypripedium calceolus is found only in Europe. It named the North American version of the flower Cypripedium parviflorum. On controversial topics, Wikipedia may have questionable entries, but as an author and editor on Wikipedia myself, I consider that most of the information is pretty current and correct. How, then, could there be such a discrepancy? From further reading, this is what I learned. Morphologically, the Yellow Lady’s Slipper which is found in Kananaskis country might not look very different from the one found in the Italian Dolomites near Bolzano. However, since the advent of DNA analysis, distinguishing species has become much easier. Our species concept is very easy to apply to sexually reproducing animals as it is relatively easy to determine if viable offspring are produced in nature. It is much more difficult determining the species of a plant. Natural hybridization in plants is much easier and so other differences must be taken into account. The difference in DNA between C. calceolus and C. parviflorum suggests that these organisms have been separated for a considerable length of time. This would not be a surprise to geologists who suggest the break-up of the continents happened as long ago as 200 million years. That certainly would lead to DNA isolation of the two populations of yellow lady’s slippers.
According to the Swiss Orchid Foundation, “The development of molecular technology and phylogenetic techniques in the last several decades has done nothing less than cause a revolution in biological classification. Not only are we able now to provide a genetic and more objective basis for analysis of generic concepts and relationships in the orchid family, but we can also reconstruct the evolutionary history of major groups within the family and trace its origins as well as better understand the evolutionary changes in vegetative and floral features of orchids.”
DNA analysis also allows scientists to determine if the morphological characteristics used for species relationships are related through homology or if they are convergently evolved forms. Genetic information also allows for the comparison of many and varied characteristics simultaneously. Orchidists are able to look at gene banks and make accurate predictions regarding the outcome of their hybridizations. I believe that these orchid hobbyists will probably push the application of DNA analysis of their plants. Companies like Quagen already do plant analysis and sell DNA kits. It would not surprise me if the first “DIY” and kitchen-based sequencing comes from a group like the orchidists who want to know about their plants.
Finally, genetic analysis, especially of the wild species, indicates if populations are genetically isolated as well as geographically separate. This should lead to better conservation and protection of vulnerable populations. Beautiful wild Alberta orchids are decreasing in number and range. One reason attributed is that people pick them or attempt to transplant them to their gardens. Since they have symbiotic relationships with mycorrhizas they do not transplant successfully. I hope that through education this type of “vandalism” can be prevented.
I look forward to seeing future developments in this rapidly advancing field that represents a convergence of art and science through professional scientists, hobbyists and lovers of nature.
Suggested sources:
Cormack, R. G. H. Wild Flowers of Alberta. Edmonton, AB: Alberta Department of Industry and Development, 1967.
Jennings, Neil L. Uncommon Beauty: Wildflowers and Flowering Shrubs of Southern Alberta and Southeastern British Columbia. Vancouver, BC: Rocky Mountain Books, 2006.
Pavia, Jerry. Rocky Mountain Wildflowers: Photos, Descriptions, and Early Explorer Insights. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 2003.
Posted by Gerry Ward at July 13, 2009 1:30 PM
Comments
Glenn email -
Delightful photographs. It made me appreciate today's rain.
Gina email -
Impressive blog entry Gerry!
Amazing information you posted here, and more amazing are the orchid captures and text that you wrote about each discovery.
Thanks for sharing such valuable information.
Liz email -
What astonished me most about this is the idea that the yellow lady slipper would have been around over 200 million years ago when the break up of the continents occurred. I suppose because animal species have either died out completely, or evolved enormously, in that time, I assumed plants would have done the same. Fascinating stuff, Gerry.
Robin email -
I guess there is more than meets the eye with these beauties. Interesting subject.
Hartmut email - www.flickr.com/photos/tadelloeser/
An excellent blog entry with perfect photographs. Thank you very much for these explanations, Gerry.
See you on FLICKR :-)
H.
Jim Brekke email - http://jimbrekke.com/
Fascinating! DNA analysis is such a powerful tool in this effort. Carry on Gerry great work.
Maddylane email - miycreations.com
Hi Gerry..very impressive blog, gorgeous captures, very interesting work you have done here, my compliments, bravo!
I see the blog business is doing well for you.
Like the clean fresh concept it, most excellent!!!
Gerry Ward email - www.genomealberta.ca/
I want to thank the people who have commented on this blog and respond to some of the questions which have arisen. With regard to the age of the orchids, I’ll admit I was just doing a little speculating there. Liz, you sent me back to the books. Gondwanaland started breaking up as early as 200 million year ago. However, as recently as 14,000 years ago there was a land bridge between North America and Asia, so it becomes difficult to know when the geographic separation of the orchids took place. Further DNA analysis could probably allow for a better model. Orchids have a world-wide distribution and are definitely one of the oldest flowering plants dating back at least 84 million years. They are known to have survived through the K/T extinction event that took out the dinosaurs and perhaps went through massive adaptive radiation subsequently.
Several people in private notes to me expressed surprise that these flowers would grow in such a harsh cold environment. There have been some studies including genomics which have investigated this question, and perhaps I will blog this in a later entry.
In another private note I was told that Mary Schaffer and Mary Vaux Walcott used the name parviflorum, which was in common usage in 1925, whereas by 1977 it was calceolus. I was aware that some flower books make reference to the variety parviflorum within the species calceolus. If another commenter has more information regarding this issue, please let me know.
Ann Mead email -
Hi Gerry,
Fascinating to read about the 2 species of Lady's Slipper Orchids! It's amazing how they've been separated for so long but still look really similar. It's such a shame we lost so many of ours in the past really. Though we are really lucky they found the one they are propogating off of. Here is the Flickr posting I made by the way:
What a beautiful orchid! We used to have something very similar to this (or perhaps even the same type) native to Britain called a Lady's Slipper Orchid. Which is quite unusual for us as British orchids are usually small and not at all exotic looking. Unfortunately in past centuries people used to dig them up to sell them at markets, and now we have 1 single genuine one left in the Yorkshire Dales discovered about 100 years ago(?) and still thriving thankfully.
Another turned up near Morecombe (which they think someone planted from a collection they had) but the actual location of the genuine one is very, very secret not surprisingly!!
They are trying to propogate off of it to plant around the Dales, which was the home of most of them originally - they were having trouble as it needs a certain fungi to do it, I read recently though that they now have some planted seedlings!
Take care Gerry!
Ann Mead email -
Hiya - just found a link telling the story about the discovery and secret protection of the last native lady's slipper that we have: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2007/jun/21/conservation.endangeredspecies
Hope you find it interesting!
Carol email -
We have what we were told are Alberta Orchids. They stand 6 to 8 feet tall. The flowers are definetly orchids but there seems to be an argument of whether they are Alberta Orchids or Chinese Orchids.