{"id":46667,"date":"2024-10-26T12:29:31","date_gmt":"2024-10-26T20:29:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/?p=46667"},"modified":"2024-11-01T07:14:23","modified_gmt":"2024-11-01T15:14:23","slug":"researchers-want-to-learn-the-secrets-of-the-western-prairie-fringed-orchid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/2024\/10\/26\/researchers-want-to-learn-the-secrets-of-the-western-prairie-fringed-orchid\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Want to Learn the Secrets of the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Western Prairie Fringed Orchid<\/a> boasts showy white flowers standing on 2-foot (0.6 m) plants, but it’s not easy to find. Growing among tall prairie grasses, it blends in perfectly. Steve Travers, a biologist at North Dakota State University in Fargo, says “I have a hell of a hard time finding it sometimes. And when people see it the first time, there\u2019s like almost this rapid intake of breath. I mean, it\u2019s so big and it\u2019s just spectacular.” Unfortunately, its prairie habitat has been disappearing, and the species is threatened.<\/a> Native to the Midwest, from Oklahoma north to Manitoba, the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid is also known as Platanthera praeclara<\/em>. It’s a relative of the Wood Rein Orchid<\/a> I recently found here on the Northern California coast.<\/p>\n

To save the last tallgrass prairies, it’s essential to understand their biodiversity. Scientists are focusing on the Western Prairie Fringed Orchid because it can be an early indicator of environmental problems. Like many native orchid species, it’s endangered by habitat loss, climate change, and declines in pollinator populations. Studying them in the field means dealing with mosquitoes, ticks, and possibly bears. Then there’s the problem of finding them. Fortunately, these orchids and some of their remaining prairie are protected by law, and researchers are working to uncover their secrets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Western Prairie Fringed Orchid boasts showy white flowers standing on 2-foot (0.6 m) plants, but it’s not easy to find. Growing among tall prairie grasses, it blends in perfectly. Steve Travers, a biologist at North Dakota State University in Fargo, says “I have a hell of a hard time finding it sometimes. And when […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,15,12,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46667","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-conservation","category-cool-growers","category-fragrant-orchids","category-in-the-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46667","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46667"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47312,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46667\/revisions\/47312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.aboutorchids.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}