Orchid Conservation

Orchids attract superlatives. Their family contains more species than any other plant family. At the last count, there were around twenty-five thousand of them and there are almost certainly more, waiting to be identifed. They are the most varied of plants. Some are so small they weigh only a few grams and produce flowers no bigger than match-heads. Others are giants, single specimens of which may weigh as much as five tons. They are among the most widely distributed of plants. Some grow in bogs and others in near deserts. Many bloom in the high canopy of tropical rain forests. While others survive on bare rock. One genus has lost all its leaves and lives underground where it is pollinated by termites – the only plant yet discovered to be so. They are the very pinnacle of botanical evolution. Such superlatives can be validated both statistically and scientifically. But orchids also appeal to the emotions. They are, surely, the most glamorous of plants. According to the dictionary, glamour is a magical, enchanting and voluptuous quality. Exactly so. If any plants can be described as voluptuous, it must surely be those orchids that produce flowers which mimic the appearance and smell of female insects with such extraordinary accuracy that male insects attempt to copulate with them and in doing so, pollinate them. Orchids, in the opinion of many, produce the most spectacular and visually ravishing of all blooms. And until recent times, orchids could claim yet another superlative – of being the most difficult of all plants to raise from seed. That characteristic, combined with the passion with which so many orchid enthusiasts wish to cultivate them, caused orchids to be the most expensive of all plants. In nineteenth century Britain, single specimens changed hands for thousands of pounds. And that, in turn, has led orchids to acquire the saddest of superlatives. They are now among the world’s most threatened plants. Ruthless collectors have stripped them from the forests of the world with such thoroughness that today many hundreds of species are in danger of extinction. This magnificent and authoritative book is the work of thirty-five of the world’s foremost orchid and conservation specialists. It sets out a new chart of orchid evolutionary history. It describes recent research into orchid reproductive biology that now make it possible to propagate even the most recalcitrant of species. It deals with the practical problems of conservation and explains what actions must be taken if such work is to succeed. In doing all these things, it dispels some of the mysteries that have surrounded orchids for so long. But that, as the following pages prove, not only enhances the claim of orchids to be among the most wonderful and astonishing of all plants, it also provides real hope that they still exist, in all their diversity, complexity and beauty, to delight generations of orchid lovers yet to come. [BBooks comment: an impeccable introduction by Sir David Attenborough]