Gerson Zanetta de Lima works in the Department of "Materno Infantil e Saude Comunitaria" at the State University of Londrina, where he teaches Pediatrics. He grows orchids as a hobby and is a friend of Hideto Yamasaki for more than ten years. He organizes this site. 

   Hideto Yamassaki is a salesman. He and his wife, Maria Toshie Yamassaki, grow orchids in the yard at their home with great competence, for the pleasure of themselves and their many friends. Their preferences are for native Brazilian orchids.
Maria Toshie Yamassaki begun to take orchid photos after 1997, when we organized this site. Many of the images shown here were made by her, who is improving day by day.

   Elias Moutinho Passos is a physician. He formerly was the chairman of Pathologic Anatomy at the State University of Londrina. His hobby is photography. He is a member of Londrina's Photo Club and has presided it once. He makes images for this site. 

   We all live in Londrina. 

   We decided to create this home page for two basic reasons. The former is that we could find only two other sites about orchids in Brazil on the WEB when we began, and we thought that we could give some contributions in this area. The second is to share with other people the opportunity to enjoy Yamassaki's flowers. 

   This is a simple site. It is not a scientific site. We will enjoy any contributions to correct an eventual mistake in nomenclature of the species presented in this site and any other in the intention to make it better. 

   The classification of the orchids presented in this site is based mainly in 

PABST, GFJ & DUNGS, F Orchidaceae Brasilienses. Hildersheim: Brücke-Verlag, 1975

   Londrina is a 450 000 inhabitants city in the State of Parana, South Region of Brazil, 23:12S and 51:00W. It is almost over the Tropic of Capricorn, 576m high, has humid summer and dry winter, temperatures vary from 0º C to 36º C. Most brazilian orchids can grow here in normal ambient. Some amazonic plants and Atlantic Forest's plants require hotter ambients. The microlaelias from the hills of Minas Gerais State require higher altitudes. The main cultivation substrat is Xaxin, a natural brazilian fiber, in ceramic pots. 
   The State of Parana was originally covered by the Atlantic Forest rainforest near the coast, by forests in the north and west, by altitude fields in the south. Today rests only 5% of the original forests in the State. The Atlantic Forest is best preserved in the mountains along the coast and in state and federal reservs. Many orchid species can still be found in the state, as other forms of wild life. 

   Londrina has an association of orchid growers (Circulo Norte Paranaense de Orquidofilos, address: Rua Iapo, 27 CEP 86025-040 Londrina, PR, Brazil) that promotes an annual meeting in november. 

Images from this site were got through a JVC^R video handycam and captured with SnapShot^R .or as regular 35mm photos and scanned throught a low cost flat scanner (TCE 510^R).