Tasmania is home to more than 200 species of native orchid, and 77 of them are listed as threatened in the state. ABC News reports that the Landscape Recovery Foundation is working on several fronts to help them.
One is people. Spring brings photographers out in search of orchids, so the foundation is sharing advice on how to get a good picture without trampling plants or drawing crowds to fragile sites through social media.
Another is propagation. The foundation is growing the critically endangered golfer’s leek orchid and expects to plant it out into native grasslands within the next couple of years.
The third helper has four legs. A detection dog called Miki, trained to sniff out orchids, found 73 plants last year that human surveyors had missed, giving conservationists a much clearer picture of where the rare flowers are still growing.
Source: ABC News