Guardians of the orchids

Standing up to his waist in the tea-coloured waters of Florida’s Fakahatchee Strand, legendary photographer Clyde Butcher (pictured above) uses a large-format camera to record today’s Everglades for future generations before they change forever.

The Fakahatchee Strand is home to a remnant population of around 1,000 ghost orchids (Dendrophylax lindenii). A poster child for plant conservation, this leafless orchid typifies the environmental threats facing many plant species today: habitat loss, degradation and fragmentation, climate change – resulting in hurricanes of increasing severity and rising sea levels – and occasional poaching. It is easy to become despondent, but there remain many individuals around the world, unsung heroes representing different disciplines, who are determined to halt, and even reverse, their decline.

Comprising an estimated 30,000 species, with the rate of discovery of new species showing no sign of declining, the Orchidaceae is arguably the largest plant family and certainly the most diverse. Many people are surprised to learn that around 50 terrestrial species are native to the UK. The majority of species, however, are found in the tropics. Most are epiphytes, often clinging to branches and trunks high up in the forest canopy, where they are just one component of an intricate web of interdependent species, including their pollinators and mycorrhizal fungi. Orchids serve as valuable indicator species and their complex life cycles make many of them particularly vulnerable to climate change.

Each and every orchid has a story to tell, but the story of one orchid, Oncidium alexandrae (Odontoglossum crispum), ‘discovered’ in 1841 in the cloud forests of Colombia, perhaps best encapsulates the history of orchid cultivation throughout the 19th century until the present day. John Day painted the first plant to flower in the UK in 1866, noting that “the texture of the flower is exquisitely beautiful – it is dazzling white with the light sparkling through each of its countless cells, as if made of hoar frost”. It became one of the most desirable orchids for collectors and the scale of its collection can be difficult to comprehend. Hundreds of thousands of this one orchid were imported in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Owning such plants denoted wealth and taste, and enormous sums of money were paid for orchids such as O. alexandrae by collectors such as the Rothschilds and Baron Schröder, who built large ranges of glasshouses to accommodate their private collections. Only the ‛best’ forms were grown and the remainder discarded[1]Seaton, P. T. Odontoglossum crispum (Oncidium alexandrae): a tale of love, loss and scientific discovery. Lankesteriana 23, 593–612 (2023).. Vast numbers of plants died[2]Millican, A. Travels and Adventures of an Orchid Hunter (Cassell and Company, London, Paris and Melbourne (1891). during their transport along the Río Magdalena to the coast and across the Atlantic Ocean, many more meeting their demise upon their arrival in hot and steamy stove houses in private collections until their cultural requirements were better understood.

Seeds of hope

In an ideal world it would be possible to conserve all orchid species through habitat preservation alone. With that looking unlikely, the long-term storage of orchid seeds has the potential to act as an insurance policy against future losses. In 2007, Orchid Seed Stores for Sustainable Use, a three-year Darwin Initiative project based at Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank, began to promote the establishment of a global network of orchid seed banks. As long as they are dried to a suitable moisture content, and kept at low temperatures in a refrigerator or freezer, the seeds of many orchid species will remain viable for many years. The more orchid seeds we can bank, the more species we can reintroduce or boost where they have been lost or are struggling. And there are numerous inspiring examples of such projects from around the world.

Orchidarc has achieved modest success in artificial pollination, yielding a few seed capsules per year that provide a glimmer of hope for the future

Since 1995 Singapore Botanic Gardens has been reintroducing orchids into their natural habitats, parks and roadside trees. Following a small-scale experimental laboratory micropropagation programme, the tiger orchid (Grammatophyllum speciosum), Bulbophyllum vaginatum, B. membranaceum, Cymbidium finlaysonianum, and C. bicolor subsp. pubescens were successfully reintroduced in and around Singapore. Whenever possible, seed was obtained from wild-grown plants, as the embryos were the result of natural pollination to ensure they were genetically diverse. The programme has since been expanded to include a larger number of native orchids, focusing on critically endangered and vulnerable species.

In the Department of Antioquia, in Colombia’s northern Andes, what was once the country’s hottest of hotspots for orchid diversity is battling against habitat loss and fragmentation. Dracula lemurella, with its pale, ghost-like ‘face’, is popularly known as mono fantasma, the ghost monkey orchid. With an estimated 200 to 300 plants remaining in the wild, the Reserva Natural La Selva de Ventanas was created in the area to protect the habitat for D. lemurella and other endangered plants. Researchers are carrying out a long-term population study, labelling individual plants and following their progress. Plants were recently reintroduced by first removing pieces with around four to five leaves from the largest adult plants in the healthy natural population found in the Reserva Natural Los Magnolios and then planting them in similar conditions in the Reserva Natural La Selva de Ventanas, located at the approximate type locality for the species. All the reintroduced plants have established well, and produced new leaves and roots. On one of the plants, flowers were produced and one naturally pollinated fruit was found. The flowers give off a musty, fungus-like scent[3]Karremans, A. P. Demystifying Orchid Pollination: Stories of Sex, Lies and Obsession (Kew Publishing. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, 2023). and are generally pollinated by fungus gnats.

Turning the tide

The cloud-covered heights of the forests of Veracruz in eastern Mexico, once rich in biodiversity, today face the encroachment of coffee plantations. Acineta barkeri, colloquially known as jicotera (bumblebee’s nest) and boca de león (lion’s mouth), with its large, golden inflorescences exuding a sweet scent, symbolises the fragile balance of its ecosystem. Poachers, drawn to its beauty, often remove these plants from their natural habitat when in bloom, unaware of or indifferent to the delicate balance they disrupt. Once removed, the survival of the orchid is unlikely, given its specific needs for high humidity and a unique symbiotic relationship with surrounding epiphytes and humus.

Collaborating with Universidad Veracruzana, conservation charity Orchidarc is intent on turning the tide, embarking on a journey to pollinate and grow the orchids from seed. The process is fraught with challenges, not least the orchid’s self-incompatibility and complex pollination requirements. Despite these hurdles, Orchidarc has achieved modest success in artificial pollination, yielding a few seed capsules per year that provide a glimmer of hope for the future. Delving deeper into the mysteries of this magnificent species, their aim is not only to preserve the few thousand specimens left, but also to reintroduce them into areas where they have been nearly eradicated, restoring the natural splendour of their cloud forest home.

Hitting new heights 

Victorian naturalists could only gaze in frustration at the epiphytes growing dizzyingly high up in the forest canopy, mostly having to content themselves with retrieving plants from branches that had fallen to the ground. Today, modern climbing techniques enable biologists to study orchid populations in their towering natural environment.

Luciano Zandoná began studying orchids in Brazil’s Atlantic Forest in the Serra da Cantareira mountain range in 2008. Here, forests that are not protected as conservation units are disappearing. Most orchid species occur in small populations and have been suffering as a result of climatic change and the edge effect – damaging factors that penetrate the forest such as the desiccating effects of warmer air, increases in light that promote the growth of weeds, invasive species and the decline of pollinators.

Zandoná tells us that there are two ways to study epiphytes growing on large trees in different forest strata. The first is to evaluate large fallen trees – heavy summer rains in the region saturate the soil and increase the weight of the epiphyte gardens high in the canopy, often leading to forest giants crashing to the ground, providing an opportunity to harvest the orchids and replant them in suitable locations in the canopy.

When people discover that what is growing locally is special, they become invested in its preservation

The second is to access the canopy using climbing equipment. After selecting the tree to be climbed, ensuring that there are no rotten branches or evidence of termites, Zandoná uses a hand slingshot to throw a lead weight with a thin nylon thread attached over the branches he wants to access. He then passes a thin rope that is used as a guide to pull the main rope for the canopy climb. He wears a beekeeper’s outfit where stinging insects are a problem. Canopy work has many applications besides studying orchids, bromeliads and a multitude of other plants, and he is able to take photographs of the flowering species in their habitat, sometimes getting a glimpse of their interactions with pollinators.

Spreading the love

Individuals can make an enormous difference to conservation, but increasing urbanisation is reducing opportunities for young people to access and become interested in the natural world. An emphasis on examination results and budgetary restraints can make it difficult for teachers to take their students on field trips into the countryside.

However, it doesn’t have to be this way. In Chile teacher Sergio Elortegui recruits students to transplant terrestrial species such as Bipinnula fimbriata at risk from urban expansion into more suitable areas. In the UK Simon Pugh-Jones has set up the Writhlington School Orchid Project, where students maintain a large orchid collection in a range of glasshouses.

National Parks and private wildlife reserves play an important role in conserving not just the orchids, but intact ecosystems. In the UK county Wildlife Trusts and other organisations focus on habitat through purchasing and managing biodiversity-rich habitats. The Hardy Orchid Society promotes conservation of our native species.

However, illegal collection remains a problem. Protected area status doesn’t deter some poachers and collectors. Ghost orchids are still regularly targeted in the Florida Everglades; Cattleya and other orchids are poached from Cantareira State Park in Brazil. And, now and then, examples of wild plants being dug up in the UK appear in the newspapers. Why some growers can’t wait for artificially propagated material to become available is a mystery.

Time and again, people who have successfully established reserves stress the importance of involving local communities. When people discover that what is growing locally is special – important on a global scale – they become invested in its preservation. The key to ensuring a plant’s survival is to teach the people to love and appreciate it.

When travelling by air over South America, it is not unusual for passengers to clap and cheer as the aircraft touches down. One doesn’t expect such a reaction at a scientific orchid conference, but a talk by Gerardo Castiglione about strategies for conserving Cattleya mossiae in a small Andean village in Venezuela had the audience clapping and cheering. Castiglione was speaking at the Sixth Scientific Conference on Andean Orchids, held in 2019 at EAFIT University in Medellín, Colombia. His talk about the efforts of a small community to conserve the orchid was truly inspirational. The story is the familiar one of habitat conversion and the systematic looting of plants to the point where large areas have been completely denuded of this lovely species, especially close to the large towns and cities. (Up until the 1950s, it was common to see large colonies growing on the trunks and branches of trees on the Cerro El Ávila, a mountain on the edge of Caracas.) Gerardo described how an educational initiative in Aricagua – a village of around 4,500 people tucked away in the folds of the Venezuelan Andes in the Tapo-Caparo National Park – inspired the local people to cultivate C. mossiae in substantial numbers.

Clearly, if you want to conserve epiphytic orchids, you need to conserve their tree hosts. In Colombia, spectacular colonies of Cattleya trianae can still be found growing on ancient roadside trees, remnants of original forest. Although the trees will eventually succumb to old age and their orchid passengers will perish along with their hosts, the survival of such a beautiful species is assured, as it is now grown in gardens and planted in the shade trees across the south of the country. Travelling down the valley of the Río Magdalena south from Neiva, in the District of Huila, Colombia, each small town or village has C. trianae growing in the trees in its central plaza. In Guadalupe, visitors pass through a tunnel of trees full of C. trianae, planted by children from a school at the end of the road. The trees are planted with many different coloured varieties – a truly magnificent sight when in full bloom.

Signs on some trees urge people to care for their plants. One says: “Cuidemos los árboles. ¡Son fuente de vida!”– “Look after the trees. They are the fountain of life!” Sometimes you just want to say: “Thank you!” Thank you to the teacher with the vision to plant trees with orchids to be enjoyed by generations to come.

Philip Seaton is a Churchill Fellow who took early retirement to work in orchid conservation. He has been studying orchids since the 1980s and has authored and co-authored five books on orchid biology. The latest is Saving Orchids: Stories of Species Survival in a Changing World, published in 2025

Acknowledgements: Sebastián Vieira, Andrés Ramos, Tim Wing Yam, Luciano Zandoná, Sergio Elortegui, Simon Pugh-Jones, Clyde Butcher and Lawrence Zettler.

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