Ghost Orchid I, Clyde Butcher

Artwork Overview

Clyde Butcher, Ghost Orchid I
Clyde Butcher, Ghost Orchid I
Clyde Butcher
Ghost Orchid I
1999
Clyde Butcher
born 1942
Ghost Orchid I, 1999
Where object was made: United States
Material/technique: gelatin silver print
Dimensions:
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 26.5 x 20.2 cm
Image Dimensions Height/Width (Height x Width): 10 7/16 x 7 15/16 in
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 35.3 x 27.8 cm
Sheet/Paper Dimensions (Height x Width): 13 7/8 x 10 15/16 in
Mount Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 36 x 28.3 cm
Mount Dimensions (Height x Width x Depth): 14 3/16 x 11 1/8 in
Mat Dimensions (Height x Width): 19 x 14 in
Credit line: Gift of Sam and Connie Perkins Collection
Accession number: 2021.0215
Not on display
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Images

Label texts

Big Botany: Conversations with the Plant World
In 1999, biologist Mike Owen invited Clyde Butcher to photograph the rare Ghost Orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) in the Fakahatchee Preserve in Florida. Owen and Butcher returned to witness the same orchid blooming in 2000 and 2001, but by 2002 its host tree had been cut down and the orchid had been stolen. A similar occurence provided the story for Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief (1998), which served as the basis for the 2002 Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman movie Adaptation. The biological background of the Ghost Orchid that Owen shared with Butcher related to a similar orchid, the Star or Comet Orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale). This Comet Orchid specimen had been sent to Charles Darwin in 1862 by British horticulturalist and plant collector James Bateman. Darwin was puzzled by this orchid from Madagascar because he could not imagine a pollinator capable of reaching the nectar at the end of the extremely long (28 cm) nectar spur. Darwin speculated that a moth might be found in Madagascar capable of the task. Alfred Russel Wallace concurred, noting an African hawkmoth known as Morgan’s Sphinx had a proboscis of adequate length. Indeed, a sphinx moth was identified in Madagascar in 1903, and given the name Xanthopan morganiipraedicta, in honor of Wallace and Darwin’s prediction of its existence in Madagascar. It was finally documented pollinating a Comet Orchid in 1997. The Ghost Orchid also has a comparably long nectar spur, which can be seen in Ghost Orchid Dancing arcing away and down behind the flower’s stem. It is pollinated by the giant sphinx moth, Cocytius antaeus. Such examples of coevolution, in which species as disparate as an insect and plant evolve in ways that are mutually beneficial, exemplify the unfolding of natural selection.
Big Botany: Conversations with the Plant World
In 1999, biologist Mike Owen invited Clyde Butcher to photograph the rare Ghost Orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii) in the Fakahatchee Preserve in Florida. Owen and Butcher returned to witness the same orchid blooming in 2000 and 2001, but by 2002 its host tree had been cut down and the orchid had been stolen. A similar occurence provided the story for Susan Orlean’s non-fiction book The Orchid Thief (1998), which served as the basis for the 2002 Spike Jonze and Charlie Kaufman movie Adaptation. The biological background of the Ghost Orchid that Owen shared with Butcher related to a similar orchid, the Star or Comet Orchid (Angraecum sesquipedale). This Comet Orchid specimen had been sent to Charles Darwin in 1862 by British horticulturalist and plant collector James Bateman. Darwin was puzzled by this orchid from Madagascar because he could not imagine a pollinator capable of reaching the nectar at the end of the extremely long (28 cm) nectar spur. Darwin speculated that a moth might be found in Madagascar capable of the task. Alfred Russel Wallace concurred, noting an African hawkmoth known as Morgan’s Sphinx had a proboscis of adequate length. Indeed, a sphinx moth was identified in Madagascar in 1903, and given the name Xanthopan morganiipraedicta, in honor of Wallace and Darwin’s prediction of its existence in Madagascar. It was finally documented pollinating a Comet Orchid in 1997. The Ghost Orchid also has a comparably long nectar spur, which can be seen in Ghost Orchid Dancing arcing away and down behind the flower’s stem. It is pollinated by the giant sphinx moth, Cocytius antaeus. Such examples of coevolution, in which species as disparate as an insect and plant evolve in ways that are mutually beneficial, exemplify the unfolding of natural selection.

Exhibitions

Big Botany: Conversations with the Plant World
Stephen Goddard, curator
2018

Citations

Goddard, Stephen H, ed. Big Botany Conversations with the Plant World. Lawrence, Kansas: Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, 2018.