Volunteers find endangered orchids on Mount Wellington

Updated September 06, 2013 19:29:00

It was thought there were just 20 Dainty Leek Orchids in the world until volunteers found almost 200 of the plants near the summit of Hobart's Mount Wellington. Efforts are now underway to make sure the endangered plant has a future in the wild.

Source: PM | Duration: 3min 31sec

Topics: biology, new-zealand


PETER LLOYD: A group of volunteers has found a rare orchid growing near the top of Mount Wellington in Hobart.

It was thought there were just 20 Dainty Leek Orchids left and that most were growing south of Hobart.

But after searching the top of Mount Wellington, the volunteers have found almost 200 of the endangered orchids, boosting hopes that the plant can be saved.

Felicity Ogilvie reports from Hobart.

FELICITY OGILVIE: For three years, Peter Fehre has been searching for the Dainty Leek Orchid near the top of Mount Wellington. It's a rare plant with delicate white flowers.

PETER FEHRE: The alpine vegetation on the mountain sometimes can be fairly stark. But the dainty orchid, when you find it, is a slim orchid, about eight to 10 inches high, but very white little flowers. Then you stop and you think, it's gotta be. And you take the photo.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Mr Fehre says the orchid is so delicate that if the wind's blowing, it's hard to get a clear photo of the plant. Finding the orchid is also difficult because it only flowers for two weeks a year.

Magali Wright from Natural Resource Management South says until the recent survey, it was thought the orchids only grew in a patch of bush the size of an olympic swimming pool.

MAGALI WRIGHT: Well, before the work of the volunteers there was only 29 plants and they were known from an area of about 50 metres. So very, very limited distribution. But now we know that there's over 200 plants and the distribution is known for about nine kilometres. So it's still relatively small distribution but, as you can see, it's more robust against disasters.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Now, we don't want people going out to pick them, but whereabouts on Mount Wellington can you find these orchids?

MAGALI WRIGHT: They're in the alpine vegetation, just before the summit of Mount Wellington.

FELICITY OGILVIE: The alpine area of Mount Wellington is often covered in snow in winter.

It's a windswept rocky area. And as a research scientist at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Dr Nigel Swarts, explains, the Dainty Leek Orchid isn't getting energy from the sun like tropical orchids.

NIGEL SWARTS: They have this very unique and strong association with a mycorrhizal fungus, with a soil fungus, to provide for their energy and nutritional needs.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Can you explain this fungus?

NIGEL SWARTS: Yeah! So a mycorrhiza is a soil fungus, which is an extension of a plant's root system that allows it to take up water and nutrients for the survival of the plant.

FELICITY OGILVIE: So instead of taking its energy from the Sun, it's taking it from the fungus.

NIGEL SWARTS: Yes, that's exactly right. Most of our Australian orchids have almost done away with a leaf system and rely almost solely on this mycorrhizal fungus for their nutritional requirements.

FELICITY OGILVIE: Volunteer Viv Muller is trying to grow the orchid in a lab at the Botanic Gardens in Hobart.

VIV MULLER: What we're attempting to do is to take the fine seed from orchids in the field and to distribute them on agar plates where we've got the appropriate fungus, which is necessary for that orchid to germinate. And once we've got those little green shoots on our agar plates, we can transfer them eventually into pots and hopefully grow them on into potted situations in the garden here.

FELICITY OGILVIE: They hope to eventually sow the endangered orchids back into the wild.

PETER LLOYD: That's Felicity Ogilvie reporting there from Hobart.