The director of communications from the Orchid Society of Ceará, Italo Gurgel, and his wife, Teresa, received the visit of Prof. Frans Waanders, who is on vacation in Fortaleza, together with his wife, Maria. Prof. Waanders is director of the School of Chemical and Mining Engineering at North-West University in South Africa. Also an orchid scholar in his country, he is responsible for the discovery of a new species incorporated into the list of South African orchids: Bonatea polypodantha.
Prof. Waanders was recently in Argentina and Chile for academic purposes, coming on vacation to Fortaleza afterwards. At Italo Gurgel’s camp house – whom he contacted before leaving South Africa – Frans and Maria first met the orchids from Ceará, tasted cashews, and photographed several other ornamental plants. The understanding between the two couples was facilitated by the presence of journalist Marco Antonio de Alencar, friend of the hosts, and who speaks english fluently. He advises the Orchid Society of Ceará for a long time, and is the producer of several editions of the FestOrquídeas posters, including this year’s. Frans presented the Association with a copy of the publication “Orchids – South Africa 2014”, a commemorative edition of the 21th World Orchid Conference, held this year in Pretoria, South Africa.
Frans and Maria – she is a dietician – reside in Potchefstroom, home to the campus of North-West University, one of the most important in South Africa, with 32,000 students enrolled. The city of 150,000 inhabitants is 120 kilometers from Johannesburg, at an altitude of 1,350 meters. The temperature there varies strongly between winter and summer, as well as between day and night, resembling the southern states of Brazil. This allows the cultivation of species of cold or temperate climates, such as Cymbidium, for example. Frans also has a good number of beautiful Paphiopedilum in his orchid house, where he is obliged to take measures to protect the plants at times of intense cold.
South Africa has a great variety of landscapes, ranging from sun-drenched beaches to the magnificent Drakensberg mountains, with its snowy peaks of over 3,000 meters. This results in an amazing variety of endemic orchids – 480 in total – in most cases, ground orchids. One of the most beautiful orchids in the country, now grown worldwide, is the Disa uniflora, a native of Cape Province.
The visit of Prof. Waanders opens the doors for future exchanges between The Orchid Society of Ceará and orchid lovers of South Africa.
