Photo: Fieldwork by Ian Falzon

Orchids represent up to 10 percent of the world’s plants and their immense diversity has reached the Maltese Islands, home to over 40 different species, of which two are endemic. Unfortunately, most of these orchids are threatened or possibly extinct as a result of dominating non-native species, habitat degradation and human disturbance.

The existence of thousands of orchid species staggers the imagination. Some flowering plants are promiscuous, relying on enticement and reward to lure whatever insect comes along. But orchids typically have adapted to have exclusive relationships with their pollinators.

These are usually bees, wasps and flies; however, many orchids are also closely linked to moths, butterflies or birds to cross-pollinate their flowers. For many orchids, their pollinators – animals that facilitate fruit or seed production by moving pollen from one part of the flower to another part – remain unidentified. Some pollinator species are so specialised that they feed only on one particular species. If an orchid goes extinct, this may result in the extinction of its pollinator as well. Another dangerous uncertainty looms in this scenario, the effects of local extinctions on the rest of the environment. If the pollinator is an insect, does its beginning stage (called larva) perform some other function different from that of the adult? Is the larva the primary food for other species which performs another unique function?

Though these are hypothetical questions which oversimplify the effects of extinction, the steady loss of species affects the global ecosystem in ways that may only become visible years down the line, if not immediately. These various connections include factors that directly affect humans from food availability to medicines.

Given that threats to Maltese orchids are growing at an unknown rate, it is vital that the citizens join conservation efforts to save this unique group of flowers. MABIMO, a Biodiversity Monitoring Network, has been set up by local and foreign scientists with volunteers from the NGOs Greenhouse Malta and BINCO Belgium as an orchid monitoring programme to follow moving orchid populations on the Islands over a minimum of three years.

This ongoing monitoring system will be crucial in tracking changes to population sizes over time with corresponding threats to develop an appropriate conservation management plan. Some strategies include building strong relationships with landowners and local councils whose public lands are home to this wild flora, as well as increasing awareness and public outreach on orchid conversation.

A long-term management plan would help to not solely educate citizens but instigate a greater appreciation to such a rare and magnificent plant group.

Anyone could join this research by contacting Greenhouse Malta on green.uom@gmail.com and also keep an eye out for the launch of an art competition for all ages on our Facebook page, designed to bring more awareness to the diversity of Maltese orchid species and the beauty of these flowers.

This project is supported by the MSDEC through the Environmental Funding (support scheme for voluntary organisations).

Did you know?

• Naked mole rats can live without oxygen for more than 18 minutes.

• Popcorn’s scientific name is zea mays everta, and it is the only type of corn that will pop.

• The matchstick is not a natural redhead. Red dye is added to the tip for dramatic effect.

• The giant shipworm, Kuphus polythalamia, gets its energy from a strange symbiotic relationship with the bacteria that lives in its gills.

• Naked Man Orchids are used in making the drink salep (the basis of the thick, sweet, coffee-like drink), which is illegal to export due to the orchid’s threatened status.

For more trivia see: www.um.edu.mt/think

Sound bites

• According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (UICN), the research team at the Institut de Recherche pour le Développement (IRD), believe that 36 to 57 per cent of Amazonian tree species are threatened with extinction. These include the famous Brazilian walnut. Only a small part of these species features on the NGO’s red list with some of these species that would have never been observed and described. The Amazon forest is facing a wave of threats from droughts, construction of dams and mines and forest fires to name a few. Based on the predicted deforestation scenarios, the forest will shrink by another 30 per cent by 2050.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/02/160210111733.htm

• Some orchids use sexual deception to trick their pollinators and attract male insects to their flowers through producing flowers that have the scent of female insects. These males are then drawn to the sexy flowers and attempt to mate with it. This sexual strategy is quite confusing as orchids that give nectar or mimic food can attract a wider variety of food-seeking pollinators and sexual displays are only striking to the males of a single species. Researchers have found out that orchids that do not attract multiple pollinators have a higher percentage of the pollen reaching to another orchid of the same species. On the other hand, orchids with multiple pollinators seem to lose a lot of pollen during transportation.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/12/091217183442.htm

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