This group of approximately 300 Neotropical species has some of the most amazing and wonderful flowers in the orchid family. The often ephemeral flowers have fantastic shapes and colors, with sometimes powerful fragrances, that are used to attract their pollinators in sophisticated and unbelievable manners. The talk covers nearly all of the 20 or so genera, with some cultural info.

Ron Parsons has been growing orchids for more than 45 years, and has been interested in the species for most of that time. Ron loves to photograph orchids and other flowers whenever he can, whether it be in nature or in collections, and does so as often as possible. Ron has more than 90,000 digital images, most of which are of orchids, and still retains a slide library that exceeds 100,000 botanical images. He has given more than 500 talks on various botanical topics, and has 4000 published photos. Ron has co-authored four botanical books, all with Mary E. Gerritsen. The first two, published by Timber Press, are Masdevallias, Gems of the Orchid World and Calochortus, Mariposa Lilies and their Relatives. Our third book, a large, two-volume set, A Compendium of Miniature Orchid Species was published by Redfern Natural History Productions in January 2014, and has 1200 pages, 1800 photos (1600 are his), and featured 500+ species in detail with many others included for comparison. In 2019 The American Orchid Society Guide to Orchids and their Culture was released, and is on its third printing. Currently they are working on a second edition of A Compendium of Miniature Orchids Species, which will have over 1200 new photos including photos of more than 500 species not in the first edition. There will now be four volumes and more than 2600 photos, with up-to-date text revision and taxonomy.

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