The Maxillarias - Eric Christensen

[mormodes]

Patricia Harding has made the new 2 volume set of Eric Christensen's last work available at:

http://www.orchidstudium.com/orchidsofbrazil.html#M

Not many Maxillaria books out there. He was working on this when he died in 2011.

 

[SlipperFan]

Thanks for the link.
Eric's death made such a loss to the orchid community.

 

[Chicago Chad]

If I am not mistaken, I believe she said that they are only printing 1000 copies of it.

 

[mormodes]

Yes, only 1000 of them. Mine's # 51.

These days people ask why buy a book when you can find anything you want on the internet. Why buy a monograph, especially.

I flipped through the book starting on page one and found something good to read on each page. I enjoyed Christensen's article on translating a plant's taxonomic description. Much of which I sorta knew already but it was nice to have it de-mystified. And it was nice to read something that Eric had written.

Granted most people wouldn't get much out of a monograph, which is mostly the taxonomic descriptions and just a smattering of culture. But I have 3-4 Maxillarias and haven't pursued purchasing many more because I can't grow 'em. Now at least I know why. Most are cool growers from montane regions and I grow intermediate and dry. So. There you are.

However that said I *did* find out more about the few I own. And with an eye to see if I could have learned the same stuff online I went to IOSPE, did a basic Google search and checked OrchidWiz. Nope, the salient features I needed to know weren't there. Sometimes you gotta ask the experts. Its nice to have all this info in one place so I don't have to go back through all my Bulletins etc to find it.

Harding, McIllmurray and Blanco each have said, in their own ways, that it was especially hard to retrace Christensen's footsteps in re-creating his work, so eventually they didn't even try. They just collected his notes and shared what he wrote, annotating as needed. In Eric's mind the book was written, he just had to slap it all together. Too bad he died before he did that.

But in this you tube video I can see that Eric probably really *did* have it all together in his mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrRz-LKmfsg

The video shows Eric speaking knowledgeably about taxonomy and I don't think he says 'Umm' or 'You know' or 'like' once in the 8 minutes. I know I can't talk that long without some sort of a pause in order to ordinate my thoughts.

Anyway, I like the book and I'm happy I bought it and now so is my Max sanderianum.

 

[Chicago Chad]

Mormodes-I have not seen a copy yet, but from what you describe and with the overall effort involved, it sounds very interesting.

You are correct, as nice as IOSPE is, it can be incorrect. As well as with many pics on the web. Sometimes it is just the photos, other times not. Patricia is relentless about correct, verified information. I'm sure this book will help continue to clarify many misconceptions.

 

[mormodes]

Well, they take care to say that the concept of the Maxillarias has changed since Christensen wrote the book. But they take care to note these changes (according to each author's understanding) in the text. Each author uses a different text color to isolate their comments from Christensen's.

You know how it is. Next week this'll all change and the week after that it'll change again, LOL!

 

[Secundino]

I hope this books will be available in Europe soon. I really love good books. I re-read my orchid-books, monograph and others many many times.
Thanks for sharing!

 

[mormodes]

I hope this books will be available in Europe soon. I really love goos books. I re-read my orchid-books, monograph and others many many times.
Thanks for sharing!

They'll ship it to Europe, according to the web page I mentioned in my first post.

I should say that I have no affiliation with the book whatsoever. I sound like a huckster or a shill. I'm not.

 

[NYEric]

wow, that's a good price. "Shill!"

 

[naoki]

Thank you for the info. Does the book contain distribution maps and some ecological info, such as habitat description, pollinators, growth habit etc? Or is it more of brown-plant (dead plants) taxonomic description?

 

[mormodes]

Thank you for the info. Does the book contain distribution maps and some ecological info, such as habitat description, pollinators, growth habit etc? Or is it more of brown-plant (dead plants) taxonomic description?

No maps. There's some ecological info. There's some habitat description. No pollinators. Yes, there's growth habit. Plenty of dead plant descriptions line drawings and pressed plant collection sheets - its a monograph. Think of Alec Pridgeon's book or Hawkes Encyclopedia, only about Maxillarias.