Helping New Zealand’s understated orchids

Our Changing World

Cooper’s orchid is New Zealand’s rarest and most elusive, with fewer than 250 plants left in the wild. It belongs to the group of potato orchids, which grow mostly underground as tubers – except for a brief period every few years when they push out a leafless stick with a few flowers. This largely subterranean lifestyle already presents a challenge, but saving this species is even harder because, like all orchids, the Cooper’s orchid can only produce seedlings with the help of the right soil fungus. After years of lab experiments to produce in vitro seedlings, botanists are now ready to boost dwindling wild populations.

Guests:

• Dr Carlos Lehnebach, botany curator, Te Papa Tongarewa
• Dr Karin van der Walt, conservation advisor, Ōtari Wilton’s Bush
• Jennifer Alderton-Moss, plant conservation researcher, Wellington City Council

Learn more:

• Alison Ballance talked to Carlos Lehnebach about why some orchids smell like mushrooms and how that helps them to fool insects.
• This Critter of the Week episode focuses on the helmet orchid (Corybas dienemus), another rare native orchid that likes cold, damp and windy places.
• In this interview, Jesse Mulligan talks to Fred Clarke, a Californian orchid breeder who created the acclaimed black orchid After Dark.
• This Critter of the Week episode discusses the copper beard orchid (Calochilus herbaceous), which is threatened by habitat loss and climate change.

Sign up to the Our Changing World monthly newsletter for episode backstories, science analysis and more.

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details