Saving Hawaii’s Rarest Orchids
The Honolulu Civil Beat offers two great stories about native Hawaiian orchids. The first article, “Hawaii’s Three Native Orchids,” is a quick read with great photos of the endangered species. It has an update on attempts to rescue the rarest variety from extinction, which I’ve blogged about before. So far, it’s good news on Kauai, where several Platanthera holochila plants have been successfully reintroduced, and another wild plant holds on. Both articles include a slideshow of the species’ unique mountain habitat on Kauai, the Alakai Swamp.
The second article, “Saving Hawaii’s Rarest Orchid,” explores this unique habitat in-depth. The Alakai Swamp is one of the rainiest places on earth, and it’s home to dwarf trees, unusual ferns and mosses, and many endangered plants, including that last known wild Platanthera on Kauai. The author treks through this alpine bog with scientists who are working hard to reestablish the species. With their efforts, the rare orchids might regain a foothold and begin the long journey away from the edge of extinction.
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July 10th, 2011 at 1:02 pm
We just returned from a Hawaiian vacation, and it’s good to read about conservation going on in that state. It’s such a wonderful place. I hope they can save these orchids.
July 24th, 2011 at 8:04 pm
Great news! Perhaps this orchid will be saved. Thank you for the news.
August 2nd, 2011 at 4:11 am
Very informative post. Thanks for taking the time to share your view with us.keep up the good work.
August 9th, 2011 at 9:07 pm
Grazi for making it nice and EZ to read the articles. It sounds like a very interssting place to visit.
September 14th, 2011 at 3:57 pm
If they’re not in a good state and have so few plants at this point, you would need to receive a lot more to save them from extinction. One wild plant isn’t enough to aid rebuilding them for sure. I hope they can save this species and be OK because of this.
September 24th, 2011 at 2:14 am
Good post! Found a lot new and interesting! The article is interesting, but it seems to me, it’s all fairy tales, nothing more. It appears there aren’t enough plants left to maintain the necessary genetic diversity. Even if it can overcome that, climate change will probably get it.
September 26th, 2011 at 9:40 am
Thx for this great information that you are sharing with us!!! Reading by way of your nice content, will help me to do so sometimes.