TAMPA BAY
ORCHID SOCIETY

THE TAMPA BAY ORCHID SOCIETY MEETS 7:30PM ON THE THIRD THURSDAY OF EVERY MONTH AT SEMINOLE HEIGHTS UNITED METHODIST CHURCH 6111 CENTRAL AVENUE TAMPA, FL ---> UMCmap

Next Meeting: 7:30 PM....Thursday May 15^th, 2008....NOTICE: Meetings have been temporarily moved to the Seminole Heights United Methodist Church...6111 N. Central Avenue... Located on the corner of Central Avenue and Hanna Street....

EVERGLADES ORCHIDS

FLORIDA NATIVE ORCHIDS

AMERICAN ORCHID SOCIETY

AUCTION! AUCTION!

READ ALL ABOUT IT!

Yes it is that time of year again and our annual Society auction is this month's meeting at our new meeting place, the Seminole Heights United Methodist Church. Bill Thoms will be the auctioneer, and you all know what a fun and educational time will be in store.

Please go through your growing areas and see what plants you might have that are duplicates or that you can divide, clean them up and bring them to the auction. This is a great opportunity to free up some space for growing and also help the Society make some money. Some of our advertisers are donating plants as well, so we should have a good selection.

So get your bidding hands ready and prepare for a really fun evening!!

Dory Gallagher

2nd Vice President

NO GUEST SPEAKER FOR MAY

PROGRAM WILL CONSIST OF:

NOMINATIONS AND ELECTION OF OFFICERS

MEMBER ORCHID AUCTION

EDUCATION PROGRAM:

"EARTH DAY AT NATURE'S CLASSROOM"

Community Service

Pogonia Project Update

The Pogonia project is in full swing with the first of what we hope may be many finds of Pogonias. Five members met Jyotsna Sharma of the University of Florida to record data relating to the first Pogonia find in Hillsborough County since at least 1984! We counted nine tracts of orchids with each group of Pogonias showing double flowered spikes rather than the more common single ones. Each flower was measured for its width and height and we also noted the height of the entire plant.

In the same habitat where the Pogonias were found were pitcher plants of Sarracenia, Drosera and Pinguicula accompanied by another orchid the Calopogon orchid.

Those helping were Jeanne Dyer, Jo Anne Hartzler, Tom Smith, Gary Krotz, Stephen Dickman and Carole Bennett.

As the study continues, the society will monitor these plants to determine their seed production. For additional finds in the county, we’ll need groups of five or six members to collect data and monitor the sites so be on the lookout for this elusive orchid!

Gary Krotz, Community Service Chair

TBOS Celebrates Earth Day with

Wild and Native Orchids of Florida

In order to inform the community about our society’s efforts to conserve our native orchids in Florida, we celebrated Earth Day with a display of our Florida Native orchids.

As part of our community project, we were asked by Nature’s Classroom in Northeast Hillsborough County to participate in their Earth Day celebration. Jeanne Dyer and Jo Anne Hartzler worked on a display showing orchids one might find in the wild in Hillsborough County. Jeanne made a trifold display with pictures and details of the orchids that everyone who came through the event had a chance to see. We also had live plants of Habaneria repens, Cyrtopodium punctatum, Prosthechea cochleata, Encyclia tampensis, Sacoila lanceolata, and Epidendrum nocturnum.

Four of us, Susan Ogle, Jeanne Dyer, Jo Anne Hartzler and I divided the staffing of our booth at the two day event over the Earth day weekend. We gave out bookmarks designed by Jeanne Dyer with pictures of the Prosthechea cochleata, Encyclia tampensis, Dendrophylax lindenii, Sacoila lanceolata and the naturalized Zeuxine strateuimatica. Each also had a picture of the Pogonia on the back with a reminder to contact our society if anyone sees the Pogonia orchid in our area.

It was a fun event we might want to consider as an annual Earth Day event where we met new potential members for the society and spread the word about conserving our Florida orchids.

Gary Krotz, Community Service