スミソニアン国立動物園さんのインスタグラム写真 - (スミソニアン国立動物園Instagram)「🔎What a find! 👩‍🔬👩‍🔬Local citizen scientists working with the Changing Landscapes Initiative and @VirginiaWorkingLandscapes, both programs of the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute (SCBI), discovered a rare orchid that is nearly extinct in the commonwealth of Virginia. The purple fringeless orchid (Platanthera peramoena) is estimated to have fewer than 1,000 individual plants left in the state. Patty Lane of Rappahannock County and Kate Heneberry of Warren County found four individual purple fringeless orchids in bloom while conducting a routine orchid survey on a private farm just south of Sperryville, Virginia, July 24. Citizen scientists are conducting orchid surveys with the Changing Landscapes Initiative and Virginia Working Landscapes as part of a pilot study in collaboration with the North American Orchid Conservation Center, which includes scientists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center. Led by Iara Lacher, head of the Changing Landscapes Initiative, these three Smithsonian programs are exploring the potential for orchid species diversity and abundance to serve as an indicator of forest health. The 20 citizen scientists who volunteered to assist with the orchid surveys underwent training to help them identify some of the 64 species of orchid native to Virginia, 34 of which are considered imperiled or vulnerable due to their rarity. Purple fringeless orchids are native to the southeastern and mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Their flowers are pink or purple and they grow in a range of habitats but need wet soil. The orchids Lane and Heneberry found were growing in a wetland. Purple fringeless orchids are declining throughout their range—where wetlands have disappeared—and are endangered in several states where they are native. #CitizenScience #CitizenScientist #Virginia #Orchid #Orchids #PurpleFringelessOrchid #WeSaveSpecies」8月9日 23時35分