Kerala researchers rescue 27,324 orchids from road sites; 71% survived 12–24 months
Epiphytic orchids from felled trees were replanted in two urban wetlands and on a beach. More than 19,500 survived, including nearly 55% of the endemic ones.
Researchers in the Indian state of Kerala collected more than 27,000 orchids from trees that had been felled or were scheduled to be cut for road development, and replanted them elsewhere. The results of the study were reported by news.mongabay.com. mongabay.com
news.mongabay.comnews.mongabay.comOpen source ↗ After 12–24 months, more than 19,500 of the plants, nearly 71%, were alive.
Rescue and survival of the orchids
Many orchid species are epiphytes: they grow on trees and use them as physical support. When the host tree is killed, the orchid can die with it. The team planted 27,324 rescued orchids at three public sites: Kappad Beach, Sarovaram Bio Park (an urban mangrove wetland) and Malabar Botanical Garden (also an urban wetland).
The rescued plants included 12 species endemic to the region. Eleven of the 12 are not listed on the IUCN Red List, so their conservation status is unknown. Of the 6,126 endemic orchids, nearly 55% survived.
Study co-author Viswambharan Sarasan of the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, said many endemic species grow in cold, hilly areas, so moving them to warmer sites near sea level was risky. According to him, many of the plants not only survived but also flowered and produced seed capsules. mongabay.com
news.mongabay.comnews.mongabay.comOpen source ↗ He added that it is unknown how many orchids have been lost to road building over the last 15–20 years.
Kerala has 271 known orchid species. Many grow on trees in forests, along roadsides and on tea and coffee plantations in the Western Ghats.
Public awareness and limits of the method
At Sarovaram, the researchers tagged 10 orchid species with QR codes that visitors could scan to learn about the plants and how they came to be there. The park receives nearly 511,000 fee-paying visitors a year, according to the authors, and the 10 species drew more than 126,000 scans over two years. Sarasan said the traffic was as high for orchids with tiny, inconspicuous flowers as for those with showy ones.
The authors write that rescue translocation can turn orchids facing destruction during infrastructure development into living conservation assets. They caution, however, that it should be a last resort, used when the orchid-bearing trees cannot be retained. mongabay.com
news.mongabay.comnews.mongabay.comOpen source ↗
