The South Pacific island of New Guinea (the 2nd largest island on Earth) is the last great frontier for orchid species. Although it contains more types of wild orchid than any other place on Earth, it has been largely ignored by botanists and even today, little is known about the majority of the New Guinea species. Professional orchid collectors, repeatedly raiding New Guinea over the last hundred years, have concentrated on plundering a handful of highly profitable species; these are now quire well-known. With the recent opening up of the New Guinea highland areas, most interest has been directed at the bewildering profusion of orchids found there, concentrating on a few of the mroe colourful miniature species. Few people have bothered with the majority of New Guinea plants, and the New Guinea lowland plants have been particularly neglected.
In this, the first major book on New Guinea orchids since 1928, author Peter O'Byrne deals with species found growing below 1000 metres altitude in Papua New Guinea, a country which comprises the eastern half of New Guinea and over 1400 other islands. Some 950-1000 orchid species have already been recorded from the PNG lowlands; 269 species (from 55 genera) are fully described int his book. Each species is illustrated with line drawings and over 130 of them are also illustrated in colour.
This book is for the orchid enthusiast as well as the professional botanist. It follows a standard taxonomic layout, thus making identification of plants easier. In addition to a botanical description, each species has a general description (in which specialist terms have been kept to a minimum) and notes on cultivation. THere are also comments on distribution and ecology, and reference has been made to the majority of known species not included in this book. This book does not attempt to be a comprehensive survey of lowland PNG orchids. This book is a start, not an end.
