Missouri Botanical Garden Orchid Show 2007

Voice: Dr. Peter H. Raven, president Resources: 2005 Orchid Island brochure If you read the bestseller The Orchid Thief, by Susan Orlean, then you not only would have been highly entertained but you would have learned that since Victorian times, passionate collectors have driven the search for the rarest of orchids. It’s important to remember that individual orchid species which are often very rare are extremely vulnerable to simply being wiped out to be driven to extinction in nature. Wild orchids are often over-collected. Many species are restricted to a specific habitat, such as the branches of a particular kind of tree and many of them with their bizarre and unusual and well adapted flowers depend on a particular kind of visiting animal or pollinator in order to be able to thrive, produce seeds and spread themselves. Since 1975, the international plant trade has been regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. As president of the Garden, I want to say that this instituti