Abstract
If one is lost in the Australian bush, one may need to resort to eating orchid tubers. At least 20 Australian species are edible. Many Australian doctors have their names immortalized by orchids. Robert Brown, of Brownian movement fame, described 120 new Australian species. However, none of them took an interest in medicinal usage of orchids. Aboriginals employ only a few Cymbidium and Dendrobium species as medicine, such usage being confined to the Northern Territory and Queensland. Several orchids native to Australia but also occuring in other countries are eaten or have medicinal usage elsewhere but not in Australia.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Aboriginal Committee of the Northern Territory (1993): Traditional aboriginal medicines in the Northern Territory of Australia. Darwin: Conservation Commission of the Northern Territory of Australia
Biodiversity Conservation Unit, Adelaide Region (2012) Adelaide and Mount Lofty Ranges, South Australia. Threatened species profile. http://www.environment.sa.au/
Burkill IH (1935) (1966 reprint, 2nd ed., with contributions by Birtwistle W, Foxworthy FW, Scrivenor JB, Watson IG) A dictionary of economic products of the Malay Peninsula, vol II. Ministry of Agriculture & Co-operatives, Kuala Lumpur
Challe JF, Niehof A, Struik PC (2011) The significance of gathering wild orchid tubers for orphan household livelihoods in a context of HIV/AIDS in Tanzania. Afr J AIDS Res 10(3):207–218
Correll DS (1978) Native orchids of North America north of Mexico. Stanford University Press, Stanford
Dash PK, Sahon S, Bal S (2008) Ethnobotanical studies on orchids of Niyamgiri Hill Ranges, Orissa, India. Ethnobot Lett 12:70–78
Davis RS, Steiner ML (1982) Philippine orchids. A detailed treatment of some 100 native species. M & L Lucidine Enterprises (reprint), Manila
Hedley G (1888) Uses of some Queensland plants. Proc R Soc Qld 5:10–15
Jones DL (2006) A complete guide to native orchids of Australia including the island territories. Reed New Holland, Sydney
Kim SL (2016) see http://www.facebook.com/chikandaorchidconservation
Lawler LJ (1984) Ethnobotany of the Orchidaceae. In: Arditti J (ed) Orchid biology. Reviews and perspectives III. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, pp 27–149
Lawler LJ, Slaytor M (1970) Uses of Australian orchids by aborigines and early settlers. Med J Aust 2:1259
Low T (1987) Australian wild foods. Aust Nat Hist 22(5):2202–2203
Maiden JH (1898) Some plant foods of the aborigines. Agric Gaz NSW 9:349–354
Musharof Hossain M (2009) Traditional therapeutic uses of some indigenous orchids of Bangladesh. Med Aromat Plant Sci Biotechnol 3:100–106
Pearn JH (2013) Australian orchids and the doctors they commemorate. Med J Aust 198(1):52–54
Pemphahishey KT (1974) Orchid eaters of Shangri-la. Am Orchid Soc Bull 43(8):716–725
Rafai MA (1975) Extraordinary uses of orchids in Indonesia. Report of the First Asean Orchid Congress. Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Kasetsart University, Bangkok
Rao TA (2007) Ethno Botanical data on wild orchids of medicinal value as practised by tribals at Kudremukh National Park in Karnataka. Orchid Newslett 2(2):1–7
Reddy KN, Reddy CS, Raju VS (2005) Ethno-orchidology of orchids of Eastern Ghats of Andhra Pradesh. EPRTI Newslett 11(3):5–9
Rumphius GE (1741–1755) Herbarium amoinense. M. Uytwerf, Amsterdam
White CT (1938) Some economic use of orchids. Orchidol Zeylan 5:74–77
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Teoh, E.S. (2019). Australian Orchids as Food and Medicine. In: Orchids as Aphrodisiac, Medicine or Food. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-18255-7_16
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-18254-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-18255-7
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life SciencesBiomedical and Life Sciences (R0)