Helping snap brilliant photos of orchids all part of conservation work

Orchid conservationists help photographers snap great pictures with minimal impact on native flora In short: Native orchids are a popular subject for photographers and social media posts. As part of its efforts to help conserve threatened orchid species, the Landscape Recovery Foundation is helping photographers understand how to minimise their impact on the environment. What's next? The foundation is also working to propagate threatened orchid species and expects to plant golfers leek orchid seedlings in native grasslands in the next couple of years. Native orchids are a sought-after subject for photographers. "They're very variable but they're also really cryptic and so you have to really know your landscape and your place, so it's like a special discovery," Landscape Recovery Foundation chief executive Josie Kelman said. But with the joy of photographing orchids comes dangers to the more than 200 species recorded in Tasmania. Of those, 77 are listed as threatened under state legislation. The majority of threatened orchid populations occur in dry forests and woodlands, grasslands, and coastal areas — all of which have been subject to "significant loss and modification" since colonisation, according to the state and federal governments' flora recovery plan for Tasmania's threatened orchids. The Landscape Recovery Foundation works with other conservation organisations and private landowners to help understand and improve orchid distribution. The foundation's Magali Wright said one of the biggest issues orchids faced was the cumulative effect of visitation. "It's not the visit of one person, it's the visit of multiple people to the same place and I think social media plays a big role in this, particularly when we post photos,"Dr Wright said. The foundation recently held a workshop for people interested in photographing the different species to help them understand the impact photographers can have on the environment. It has also provided some tips. Despite the risks from social media and photographers trampling through the wilderness, interest in native orchids can also help conservation efforts. "It's very hard to encourage people to act if they don't understand what's there or how they can be part of things," Dr Kelman said. "You have to fall in love with something before you want to make an effort to do something to conserve it." One of the species conservationists have had success propagating is the golfers leek orchid, paraprasophyllum incorrectum, known from two sites in the Tasmanian midlands. "We've been working out how to grow it for the last eight years and I think we've finally got it right," Dr Wright said. For orchid seeds to germinate and grow, they need to be colonised by a fungus. "For some species it's really tough to find the right fungus," Dr Wright said. "For years we grew it [golfers leek orchid] on an oatmeal jelly and this last couple of years we've been trying things like quinoa and polenta and brown rice. The fungus and the orchid combination seems to quite like that." Golfers leek orchid seedlings are being grown to be planted out in native grasslands over the next couple of years. Scent detection dog helps map orchids To better understand orchid distribution and population numbers, the Landscape Recovery Foundation is working with Canines for Wildlife. "Last year Miki, a cocker spaniel came down to Tasmania and found 73 orchids that we had walked past … including tiny seedlings that were growing in poa tussocks," Dr Wright said. Orchids propagated by Dr Wright's team were used to train Miki and the dog can find both the golfers leek orchid and another threatened orchid the Tunbridge leek orchid, paraprasophyllum tunbridgense. Miki and another scent detection dog will be involved in further field survey work in the Tasmanian midlands next month. Dr Kelman said orchid conservation was the project that drove the most interest in the Landscape Recovery Foundation's work. "[Orchids] are beautiful flowers in the environment, they're unusual," she said. "If you think about the engineering world, we've got bridge enthusiasts or the train buffs, so for the plant world it's the orchid enthusiasts."