North Texas Orchid Lovers love H. warnockii!

Each summer, NORTH TEXAS ORCHID LOVERS venture into the woods in search of the rare Hexalectris orchids, leafless orchids that depend on fungi to survive. This survey is a great hands-on experience - being nose to nose with those gorgeous flowers, including the Texas Purple Spike (Hexalectris warnockii), as you count and measure them. Another great hands-on way to learn about orchids – those native to Texas as well as across North America – is to build your very own orchid-gami, a 3D orchid model created by the North American Orchid Conservation Center (NAOCC), based at the Smithsonian Institution’s Environmental Research Center (SERC).

What is orchid-gami? The North American Orchid Conservation Center (NAOCC), developed orchid-gami as a fun activity to raise awareness about the conservation and ecology of our native orchids. With a variety of shapes and colors, these realistic 3D models are a unique way for naturalists of all ages to learn about our native orchids and the challenges they face.

Designed by Dutch artist Maarten Janssens (www.3eyedbear.com), orchid-gami made its international debut at the Kunstsommer Arts Festival in Germany and was the featured exhibit at the Conservation through Creativity orchid show in Hawai’i. Already popping up in classrooms and orchid shows across North America, we invite you to help us create a new orchid-gami – the Texas Purple Spike (Hexalectris warnockii)!

We – NORTH TEXAS ORCHID LOVERS – have the opportunity to celebrate this orchid we’ve come to love first-hand. Our campaign will enable NAOCC to design and produce the Texas Purple Spike (Hexalectris warnockii) as an orchid-gami model which will be used for educational outreach on both the national level by NAOCC and in our own orchid projects here in Texas. Our success will be recognized on each of the models: “The Texas Purple Spike was generously sponsored by North Texas Orchid Lovers”.

AND IN EXCITING NEWS, an anonymous donor (and talented orchid hunter) has offered to match the first $1,500 of donations to the campaign. Thank you, friend!

For more information about orchid-gami, click on the orchid-gami tab at the top of the NAOCC homepage, https://northamericanorchidcenter.org/ . For information about this GoFundMe initiative and the annual orchid survey in north Texas, please contact Dana Wilson ([email redacted]) or Stephanie Varnum ([email redacted]).