Name a new species of orchid!

[Mahon]

Found this the other day, and was waiting for someone else on the forums to find it too

At a starting bid of $12,000 on eBay, you can "fight" to win the auction to name your very own species of orchid. This orchid was found around Pastaza, Ecuador on a cliff now included in the EcoMinga project (Lou Jost, Calaway Dodson, et al.). The orchid belongs to the genus Cyclopogon (a terrestrial and semi-lithophytic genus), but may eventually be reclassified in a new genus. Here's all the info here:

eBay: Name a Newly Discovered Orchid Species for Charity (item 150112343333 end time Apr-23-07 17:05:00 PDT)

While discussing it with Lou Jost (who originally found the taxon growing on the cliff), he mentioned that the "bidding process is unnecessarily complicated, and I am not sure if it will work"... hopefully it does work out and help out the EcoMinga project.

Here are a few more links if interested in the EcoMinga project:

Lou Jost's website, discussing EcoMinga:
Ecominga

Index of EcoMinga related topics on Lou Jost's site:
Conservation

...and the EcoMinga website:
fundacion ecominga

-PM

[Shadow]

Current bid is 12 500. But you must be pre-approved to bid. What is that?
PS. Just curious, I'm not going to participate.

[Mahon]

Originally Posted by Shadow

Current bid is 12 500. But you must be pre-approved to bid. What is that?
PS. Just curious, I'm not going to participate.

I think the pre-approved part is to ensure that the winner of the auction will actually pay for the item, so they want all bidders on that auction to have money available up front.

-Pat

PS: oops, yeah, it is starting out at $12,500