Where Am I?
Welcome to Orchids of Wisconsin! This is an interactive flora of the native
and naturalized orchids of Wisconsin. Right now you're at the front page
of this site, which can be accessed through lists
of the taxa or through keys. Choose
your favorite method and click away! To the best of my knowledge, this is
(and was) the first complete flora on the Web, and the first to use interactive
hyper-keys. I feel that the HTML language has tremendous potential for interactive
determination of plant specimens, and Orchids of Wisconsin is the first
incarnation of that idea.
PLEASE be aware of the fact that the majority of the thumbnail images
are in JPEG format. This means that some browsers may not be able to load
these images. This site has been optimized for Netscape; for the best results,
you should be using the latest release of Netscape to browse this site.
The latest version of Netscape is available for free downloading by clicking
here. While it would be
nice if this site worked with every browser, I don't have the time to make
that possible. Given that the largest percentage of the Net community uses
Netscape I decided to use it as the standard. Sorry if I don't support your
favorite browser!
Tell Me More!
Species accounts include photos, typical taxonomic descriptive information,
a description of similar species to aid in identification, habitat information,
blooming dates, a section on pollination biology (if information is available),
herbarium records, and a range map. Information was compiled from published
literature (see References), detailed examinations of specimens in the University
of Wisconsin-Madison herbarium, and my personal experience and observation
of the species in the wild, both in Wisconsin and elsewhere. Enjoy your
visit to Orchids of Wisconsin, and remember, here you can pick the
flowers (download the images)! All images included here are mine (unless
otherwise noted) and are copyrighted; please ask permission before using
them for any purpose.
What's the Image at the Top of the Page?
By the way, in case you were wondering, the image in the title is a stylized
close-up of a single flower of Platanthera leucophaea, the Prairie
fringed-orchid. I have decided to use this rare prairie native as the symbol
for this site. Historically, this species was probably the most common orchid
in southern Wisconsin. Sadly, habitat destruction has led to its listing
as federally threatened. Given the small size and fragmented nature of the
few remaining populations, it is probably only a matter of time until this
species will survive only in photos and memories.
Legal Mumbo-Jumbo
OK, it's sad, but unfortunately I need to add a few disclaimers and restrictions
to this site. First, all the contents of this site, both text and pictures,
are copyrighted and may not be used for any purpose besides education and
edification. They may not be published, either in print or in Internet-based
publication, without my express permission. The views and information provided
here are all my responsibility and do not represent or reflect on the University
of Wisconsin in any way whatsoever.
Now, given that, I am glad to let anyone download and use the images for
personal enjoyment. The images and text may also be used for educational
purposes, although I ask that you inform me of how you will use them before
doing so. I have had to place these unpleasantries here because I had problems
with plagiarism of text and unacknowledged use of images from my previous
release of Orchids of Wisconsin. To make that problem worse, the images
in question were not even mine, but ones that I had been given limited permission
to use. Please respect these disclaimers and restrictions on usage so that
Orchids of Wisconsin can remain free on the Internet for all to use!
Related Links
You can also connect to a collection of more than 5,000
images of plants (on Gopher) used in various Botany courses taught here
at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. These image sets belong to several
faculty members, and may not be used for anything besides educational purposes
without their express permission. These image collections were put together
by Mike Clayton as part of an instructional technology project; more information
on this project can be found on his home page, Virtual
Foliage.
Credits, Disclaimers, Etc.
This page is the work of Jeff Hapeman. All
the keys and descriptions are solely his work, as are the photos, unless
otherwise noted. If you have any questions, comments, etc. (or, heaven forbid,
you find any errors!), please contact me by e-mail: jhapeman@students.wisc.edu
or jhapeman@macc.wisc.edu .
I would love to hear from anyone who visits this page. Hope you enjoy it!
Click here to find out more about me and my research
at UW-Madison.
While I take sole responsibility for the content of these pages, I cannot
take credit for all the work that went into producing Orchids of Wisconsin.
The most credit for facilitating this project goes to Mike
Clayton, who first planted the idea for this site with his glowing descriptions
of the possibilities of digital imaging for educational use. Mike also was
instrumental in my "conversion" to the Mac platform, and served
to educate me in the myriad capabilities of the Mac for multimedia creation
and presentation. Mike also provided valuable computer resources for scanning
and editing all of the images, and even scanned many of the images himself.
David Jourdan kindly provided a home for this site on the library server
for its first year. Several people kindly provided images of species, and
are credited on the appropriate pages: Mark Larocque, Dan Aussem, Bill Alverson,
Ken Sytsma, and Emmet Judziewicz. Merel Black spent many hours in the herbarium
entering the herbarium sheets in the database. Kandis Elliot and Nick Hill
provided the artistic expertise you see in the distribution maps. My wife
Carolyn tolerated my many hours in the field, the great sums of money spent
on camera equipment and film, and the numerous hours I spent furiously typing
away on my computer. Many others contributed comments and helpful suggestions
that improved the site. Thanks to all for making this a great site!
Last updated April 22, 1996 JH