What is the greatest risk to
orchids?
Inclement weather? Violent
events such as landslides or earthquakes? Disease?
No, it’s habitat destruction
driven by urban and tourist development and industrial, agricultural and mining
pressure.
This is the sad finding of a
valuable tome on the massive variety of orchid in a biodiversity hotspot.
Experts studied flora in Cuba,
Jamaica, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Hispaniola, and produced a highly
respectable 640-page volume with detailed accounts of the 594 currently known
orchid species in the Greater Antilles.
The stonking tome incorporates
recent findings about how plant DNA is used to resolve long-standing questions
about what constitutes a distinct species or group of related species,
according to a report.
Did you know that orchids rank
among the most species-rich family of flowering plants in the Greater Antilles,
which extend from Cuba in the west to Anegada, an island of the British Virgin
Islands, in the east? In fact, there are 120 species of Lepanthes.
Here’s a lovely sentiment from Dr.
Ackerman, a professor of biology at the University of Puerto Rico:
“I have hope that the orchid
flora of the Greater Antilles is unusually resilient after disturbance and
there is some indication that this may be so. hange has always occurred. We
certainly have the capacity to dramatically accelerate the process and we also
have the ability to minimize the detrimental consequences. All we need is the
will.”
Captions: Typical Antilles vegetation and a Lepanthes stenophylla
By Pamela Kelt
Even in Victorian times, orchids were under threat. READ THE BOOK! The Lost
Orchid is a Gothic-inspired tale of intrigue set in 1880s, when orchidelirium
was raging ... Out on 4 April from BluewoodPublishing.com
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