AboutOrchids

It’s always a pleasant surprise to find stories in the news about orchids, and lately I’ve seen a handful about native orchids blooming in Britain and North America. This recent article from the Times of London provides a great account of how native British orchids are thriving this year. Although less well-known than their tropical cousins, temperate orchids are fascinating in their own right, and many are just as beautiful as any showy Cattleya or Phal.

This article also provides insight into how poorly understood many of these temperate orchids are. Often, little is known about their precise growing requirements, or why they’re plentiful in one year and absent the next. Unfortunately, some overly-enthusiastic orchid growers can take an article like this as permission to do some local orchid hunting, and they return home with a plant yanked out of the ground, or some unusual cut flowers to sit in a vase. Sadly, this is one of the major dangers to the survival of these orchid species. Without the plant or the flower, the orchid cannot reproduce, and will soon perish. Plants that are removed from the wild for personal collections rarely survive, since even expert growers cannot duplicate the necessary natural conditions. All of these native orchids are also protected by law, and removing or damaging them is illegal. If you’re fortunate enough to spot a wild growing orchid, take away only pictures and memories, and leave nature to care for itself.

Explore posts in the same categories: Conservation, In the News, Orchids in the Wild

This entry was posted on Saturday, June 27th, 2009 at 12:00 pm and is filed under Conservation, In the News, Orchids in the Wild.

Subscribe to the About Orchids Blog:

Both comments and pings are currently closed.