News!from Around the Orchid WorldScientists Preserve the Endangered Ghost Orchid

摘要

ABOUT 2,000 GHOST ORCHIDS remain in Florida, all the more reason to step up efforts to stabilize the current populations. Ghost orchids became more famous through a popular book, "Orchid Thief," about a man arrested for stealing them from trees in a forest in Collier County, near the Everglades.University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences researchers believe they're on the verge of helping conserve the popular but endangered Ghost Orchid (Dendrophylax lindenii), a plant that's often poached. "We've successfullydeveloped procedures to culture plants from seeds in the lab and then successfully acclimatize them into our greenhouse," said Michael Kane, professor of environmental horticulture at UF/IFAS. "We've also obtained a high survival and vigorous re-growth rate when they're planted back into the wild."