Orchid traders keep ecosystem balanced
Orchid traders keep ecosystem balanced
Ita Nurita Wanggai proudly displays an ugly but beautiful, rare orchid.
"My late husband was the first who introduced this rare orchid. He named it anggrek kribo, meaning frizzy or curly orchid. The petals are just like our wavy hair," she said.
It's 77cm stalk has more than five flowers. The sepals and petals are greenish-cream, with abstract red-brown markings all over, except for the edges.
The shape of the sepals and petals are wide, twisted, distorted, and curled at the end.
People who have seen the orchid described the flower as "grotesquely beautiful." The bizarrely beautiful orchid is a family member of Dendrobium spetabile. This species is found in Papua (the eastern part of Indonesia), Papua New Guinea, and the Solomon Islands.
Fifty-five-year-old Ita then showed other orchids. "These are the Dendrobium discolor, Dendrobium lasianthera and Dendrobium canaliculatum. All of them are the curly orchid species," she said.
On her small plot of land she grows more than 200 different orchid species and out of these, she could only name 175. The other 25 orchids remain anonymous for she could not trace their families nor find someone who could help her out to identify the species.
Ita continues what had been started by her late husband, Sofyan Wanggai. Sofyan spent a lot of time hunting for the orchid from the Papua deep wild forests. Initially, in 1972, the gardening hobbyist paid a visit to the Cyclops Nature Reserve, just outside Jayapura, the capital of Papua province. He enjoyed the rich collection there and if he was lucky, he could go home with an orchid or two to plant at home.
Later in 1977 Sofyan decided to give up his job as a civil servant as he found that he earned more from selling orchids. For a small Dendrobium spectabile seedling he could get Rp 100,000 (US$11) which was a lot of money then. From the business he was able to send his three sons and four daughters to university, to obtain a better education than the parents.
"All of us (Sofyan's children) graduated from university. One of my brothers is even studying in Adelaide, Australia, now," said the eldest child, Suzana Wanggai. The 34-year-old now assists her mother in running their orchid business.
"When my brother Tony attended university in Jakarta, my father did not give him any money. Instead he gave him orchid seedlings. Tony grew them and sold the orchids to pay for his university fees," Suzana adds.
The Wanggais now runs an orchid nursery in Jayapura and rely on selling orchids and other plants for their livelihood. They, of course, are not the only family that benefits from Cyclops Mountain Nature Reserve and other conservation areas in Papua. Yesaya Saway, 60, also conserves, breeds and sells orchid seedlings to make ends meet for his family.
His love of orchids grew when he worked at the Papua provincial forestry ministry office. It was around 1967 that he started to collect orchids and started his business selling plants in 1977 on a one-hectare site.
The Wanggai and Saway families have proved that they can benefit from forests without damaging them, as they do not fell trees or hunt animals, thereby not disrupting the balance of the ecosystem.
--Harry Surjadi