WHAT IS THAT FUNNY IMAGE OF AN ORCHID AT THE BOTTOM OF THE HOME PAGE OF THE NAPLES ORCHID SOCIETY’S WEBSITE?

It used to be yellow and now it’s white and it doesn’t pop out like it used to. But what does it mean? The 1% for Orchid Conservation and logo belong to the Orchid Conservation Coalition and it means that our orchid society has consistently committed to budget at least 1% of our annual budget for orchid conservation. No, we don’t donate that amount to the Coalition, but the OCC just wants our board to agree to spend at least that amount on our local orchid conservation activities.

And that’s what we do through our Intern Program. But we also do it by having our annual show and by talking about and demonstrating the Ghost Orchid-gami and other native Southwest orchids. When NOS buys the Ghost Orchid-gami from the North American Orchid Conservation Center, that’s supporting orchid conservation. Several times a year we invite local presenters to talk about local wild orchids at our monthly meetings and that also contributes toward that greater than 1% for orchid conservation.

So that logo means that our society is actively supporting orchid conservation in many ways. I’m proud of that and hope you are too. Find out more about this subject by Googling orchid conservation. If you are lucky like me, you might also find that the US Fish and Wildlife Service has a 23 page report on orchid conservation in the Florida Panther National Wildlife Refuge. It was written a while ago by one of Dr. Zettler’s students at Illinois College. Couldn’t get the web address, but you can find it if you look.