WHEN orchids first became popular in Victorian days, one
particular Dendrobium had a positively Gothic reputation and drew macabre
crowds when on view. Although elegant in itself, it had a grisly story. In 1890 Frederick Sander ordered orchid hunter William Micholitz to New Guinea in search of a variety of Dendrobium phalaenopsis (then known as Den. schroderianum, now Den. bigibbum – and no, I’m not making this up).
After suffering many
difficulties he ended up as a guest in a native village war dance. Not being
one for things tribal, he got bored and wandered off, but stumbled across some
ritual sacrifices. Revulsed, he ran off and perched in a tree, only to find
said Dendrobium. He took large quantities for shipment to England, but en
route, fire broke out on the ship and the precious cargo was lost. Ordered back
to find more plants, Micholitz grudgingly returned and the following year once
again found plants growing on bare limestone between a large number of human
skulls and bones. 
Ritual for the dead
It seems that the people ritually laid their dead in a light
coffin, placed upon the rocks just above high tide, a situation which the
Dendrobes appreciate.
After failing to bribe the natives with trinkets, he offered
brass wire, which proved irresistible, and went on to strip the area of every
single plant. The locals helped him to disturb the bones of their ancestors,
but even helped him to stow the plunder. They had one condition: that he pack
two of their favourite idols alongside. Once this had been agreed, they
performed a war dance round the cases, and assisted in transporting them.
Skull and bones
Despite Micholitz’s promise not to send any bones or skulls with
the shipment cargo, one plant attached to a skull arrived in England where it
created quite a sensation when it was put up for auction.
Orchid maniac of the day Frederick
Boyle recorded:
‘Every newspaper in
the realm gave some sort of a report, and a multitude of my confreres were
summoned to spin out a column, from such stores of ingenuity as they could
find, upon a plant which grew on human skulls and travelled under charge of
tutelary idols. The scene at 'Protheroe's' was a renewal of the good old time
when every season brought its noble plant, and every plant brought out its
noble price--in short, a sensation.’
The plants, still attached to the skulls, along with the idols
were sold as one lot and purchased by the Hon. Walter Rothschild, in whose
collection they remained for many years.
Captions:
● Dance of
Duk-duk, Bismarck Archipelago, from a watercolour by Joachim Graf Pfeil, 1899,
wikimedia
● Dendrobium
phalaenopsis, John E Hill, Cooktown orchids and bud, wikimedia
● Walter
Rothschild (1868-1937), Frances E. Warr, ‘Manuscripts and Drawings in the
Ornithology and Rothschild Libraries of The Natural History Museum’, 1997,
wikimedia
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