Student curator follows the trail of a vanishing American orchid in new exhibition opening May 4

Curator Nithya Guthikonda ’26 follows the story of an imperiled North American species in the exhibition “Tracing the Rosebud Orchid: Botanical Illustration and Ecological Awareness in 18th- to 21st-Century America,” on view in Sterling Memorial Library through Oct. 25.

Guthikonda’s fascination with the rosebud orchid began with a serendipitous discovery: “I encountered the rosebud orchid (‘Cleistesiopsis divaricata’) in a stand of longleaf pines off a sunny highway shoulder near Jacksonville, a member of one of the few remaining populations in Florida.”

The rosebud orchid is among the largest terrestrial orchids in North America. Once ranging from Florida to New Jersey, the species is now endangered in both states, threatening to make the species and its ecosystem an “ecological memory.” 

”I continued to visit the region while researching fire ecology at Florida’s Tall Timbers Research Station and kayaking the Apalachicola River, which feeds the longleaf pine floodplain, with the nonprofit organization Apalachicola Riverkeeper. I learned more about the history of the now endangered longleaf pine and its importance to the various communities sustained by its ecosystem,” Guthikonda said.

“The visual history of the rosebud orchid is a visually compelling way to raise awareness of and appreciation for the disappearing ecosystem in a time when conservation efforts are of paramount importance and are being challenged in the United States.”

An illustrated tale

The exhibition contains the first known illustration of the rosebud orchid—a watercolor by English artist and naturalist Mark Catesby, who observed it during travels in South Carolina. Ink drawings by William Bartram provide evidence of its transport to the Bartram family’s Philadelphia garden after the Revolutionary War. The exceptional bloom became a symbol of the new republic and the emerging city of Philadelphia, the nation’s capital from 1790 to 1800. In the 1780s, Swedish botanist John Fraser introduced the rosebud orchid to the Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew, responding in part to a growing international interest in the newly formed nation of America.

In 1841, the orchid found its way into Plate 122 of the famous compendium “The Birds of America” by artist and ornithlogist John James Audubon, the first major illustrated publication of the birds of North America—a copy of which is on display in Beinecke Library.

Raising awareness

With materials from Yale Library Special Collections and other sources, Guthikonda traces the rosebud orchid from its symbolic and scientific significance in the 18th century to its importance in raising ecological awareness in the 21st. The exhibition explores five themes in its five cases: exploration, taxonomy, cultivation, visual representation, and conservation.

“My project tells the story of the rosebud orchid’s role in informing various trends throughout history,” Guthikonda said. “Commercialization, classification and science, nationalism—all contributed to the habitat destruction we continue to witness today in the United States.”

Guthikonda is graduating Yale with a Bachelor of Science degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and History of Art. This summer, she will be researching the intersection of art and plant sciences as a Plant Humanities Summer Fellow at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, DC. In the fall, she will attend the University of Cambridge as a Paul Mellon Fellow to pursue an M.Phil. in Global Art and Architecture.

Join Guthikonda for a curator’s tour on Tuesday, May 5, at 4:30 p.m., in the Exhibition Corridor of Sterling Library, and conversation and refreshments afterward in the Memorabilia Room.