A happy story about new botanical discoveries by Kew researchers that warms the cockles of this orchidmaniac's heart.They include six new orchids a three-metre slipper orchid, Selenipedium dodsonii, from Ecuador. It was identified from a specimen taken from the wild decades ago and stored unnoticed in a US herbarium.
Many of the discoveries have potential for use in medicines and by the aromatherapy industry. Others can assist production of crops to be cross-bred with the commercial species to create new varieties that might be more disease-resistant or able to grow in drier or wetter areas. Specific genes might also be transferred to create genetically modified strains.
Pictured: rope suspension bridge inviting you to explore the cloud forest in Ecuador.
Go Kew.
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