About the Archive
Every plant has a history worth preserving.
The Hermit Wolf Orchidarium is a personal botanical archive devoted to the individual orchids that live in my collection.
A living record
The Orchidarium preserves the identity, origin, acquisition history, photographs, growth cycles, flowering records, and cultivation history of every orchid in the collection.
It is not simply a gallery of flowers. It is a continuing record of living plants: their arrival, their roots and new growths, their changing seasons, their difficulties, their recovery, and the care each one requires.
Individual identity
Each orchid is treated as an individual specimen. Even when several plants belong to the same species or hybrid, each receives its own accession number and permanent record.
This makes it possible to follow the history and development of every plant separately, rather than allowing its identity to disappear into the general name of a species or grex.
The accession system
Every orchid is assigned a unique HDS accession code. That code connects the living plant with its botanical identification, provenance, photographs, repotting history, observations, and flowering record.
Botanical names may change as classifications are revised or additional information becomes available. The accession number remains permanently associated with the individual plant.
Images and observation
Whenever possible, the records use photographs of the actual specimen. When a newly acquired orchid has not yet flowered in the collection, a botanical image may temporarily represent its expected appearance.
As the plant grows and flowers, those images can be replaced or supplemented by its own photographs. The archive therefore develops together with the living collection.
Purpose
The Orchidarium is designed as a durable personal research record: clear enough to consult quickly, detailed enough to preserve the history of each individual plant, and flexible enough to grow with the collection.
It is the meeting place of botanical study, observation, memory, and care.
About the creator
The Hermit Wolf Orchidarium was created and is maintained by Hortensia de los Santos, biologist, researcher, author, and lifelong observer of the natural world.