Even if you don’t have a green thumb, you can have beautiful orchids all year with orchid wall calendars. The American Orchid Society’s 2012 calendar contains a year’s worth of mini orchids. The Orchid Conservation Alliance’s 2012 calendar (front cover pictured below) has photos and stories of a dozen of the world’s most endangered orchids. […]
Orchids need bees more than bees need them. Scientists have long known that male orchid bees use orchid scents to court females. Many tropical species like Stanhopeas and Cycnoches rely on their perfumes to attract amorous male bees as pollinators. The males collect scent compounds using special brushes on their legs, and pollinate flowers in […]
The American Orchid Society (AOS) is helping the Nature Conservancy to restore an important piece of land. Myrtle Head is a 72 acre (29 hectare) remnant of native pine savanna near the North Carolina coast. It’s part of the Green Swamp, which is considered one of the top biodiversity hotspots in North America. The Venus […]
Since 1976, the Australian Orchid Foundation has worked for orchid conservation, study, promotion, and education. Run by volunteers, it’s making tremendous progress to benefit native orchids. Australia is home to many fascinating and unusual species, like the Brilliant Sun Orchid, and also numerous varieties of Dendrobium, Pterostylis, and Sarcochilus. They all face threats from habitat […]
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, […]
The story’s been told many times before, e.g. The Orchid Thief, but tragically, it never dies. The BBC has an update on the “Invasion of the orchid snatchers,” collectors who illegally take orchids from the wild. The article includes info about several orchids, including Phrag kovachii, the giant purple lady slipper discovered in Peru in […]
The UK is anticipating a wild orchid summer. With 50 fascinating British species, The Independent has blooming schedules and helpful info for finding orchids in the wild. The article has good photos, including shots of some European relations to the Epipactis and Orchis that I grow. The Wildlife Trusts, a conservation group, has more info […]
The Center for Conservation of Amazonian Flora began 3 decades ago with one man’s dream and a little patch of land. In 1980, an Ecuadoran accountant named Omar Tello bought 15 acres (6 hectares) of pasture, and began to restore it to tropical rainforest. He had no formal schooling in horticulture or biology, but that […]
A small Australian lab is offering new hope for the Brilliant Sun Orchid. This endangered species is one of 15 rare Aussie natives that the lab is trying to grow from seed to bolster wild populations. Thelymitra mackibbinii, a.k.a. the Brilliant Sun Orchid, has suffered from habitat destruction, competition from alien plants, and damage from […]
Illinois College biologists are bringing some rare orchids home to Hawaii. Like I blogged last May, this Platanthera species, also known as the Fringed Orchid, is one of the few true island natives, and it’s endangered. Habitat destruction, invasive plants and animals, and theft from the wild have severely reduced the wild population. In 1992, […]
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