Are our orchids safe down under? A national assessment of threatened orchids in Australia

Authors

  • Gary Backhouse Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Division, Department of Sustainability and Environment 8 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne, Victoria 3002 Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15517/lank.v7i1-2.18388

Abstract

Australia has about 1700 species of orchids, com- prising about 1300 named species in about 190 gen- era, plus at least 400 undescribed species (Jones 2006, pers. comm.). About 1400 species (82%) are geophytes, almost all deciduous, seasonal species, while 300 species (18%) are evergreen epiphytes and/or lithophytes. At least 95% of this orchid flora is endemic to Australia. While the tropical and subtropi- cal epiphytic/lithophytic orchid flora is low by world standards, the temperate terrestrial orchid flora is amongst the richest and most diverse of any compara- ble region in the world. 

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Published

2015-06-17

How to Cite

Backhouse, G. (2015). Are our orchids safe down under? A national assessment of threatened orchids in Australia. Lankesteriana: International Journal on Orchidology, 7(1-2). https://doi.org/10.15517/lank.v7i1-2.18388