Native orchid article

[Bonaventure W Magrys]

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution: 12/28/03 ]                          Botanical garden babies rare plants                                   By JINGLE DAVIS                                                       The Atlanta Journal-Constitution                                      (Embedded image moved to file: pic11895.gif)                          (Embedded image moved to file: pic28021.gif)                        (Embedded image moved to file: pic26151.gif)                       ? Atlanta/South Metro community page                            (Embedded image moved to file: pic30729.gif)                       (Embedded image moved to file: pic06496.gif) (Embedded image moved to file: pic01323.gif)                        (Embedded image moved to file: pic24792.gif)                          An ordinary plastic tray filled with several dozen small pots, each sp=routing a pale green      
shoot and white root hairs that look like miniature dandelion puffs, c=ould help ensure wild     
survival for one of the state's rarest native orchids.                The small orchids, called monkeyface orchids because their delicate wh=ite flowers look like,    
well, monkeys in profile, are a threatened species in Georgia, where t=hey are known to grow in  
only a few places near Newnan.                                        The orchids in the tray were germinated from seeds collected from thei=r parent plants in the    
wild in 2001. Sown in spring 2002, they spent their first months in th=e Atlanta Botanical       
Garden's new tissue culture laboratory, where manager Ron Gagliardo an=d his staff focus on      
propagating rare and endangered species in keeping with the garden's n=ative plant conservation  
program.                                                              This month, Gagliardo will select some of the seedling monkeyface orch=ids and return them to    
the wild in Coweta County, where, he hopes, they will one day produce =seeds of their own and    
increase their species.                                               "This is the first time it's ever been tried in Georgia," said Gagliar=do, who is also curator   
of tropical collections at the garden. "We're working with a private l=andowner because [he has] 
the most accessible site to do this trial."                           December is a good month to transplant the fledgling orchids because t=hey are dormant now. And  
like many other plants, the monkeyface needs exposure to cold weather =to thrive, he said.       
But Gagliardo will keep some of the seedling monkeyface orchids at the=garden, just in case the 
first trial fails. The garden, in fact, routinely houses more of sever=al rare species than are  
now growing in the wild, he said.                                     The tissue culture laboratory opened in March 2002. Built with money d=onated by Dottie Fuqua in 
honor of Ron Determann, superintendent of the garden's Dorothy Chapman=Fuqua Conservatory, the  
laboratory provides the high-tech equipment and sterile space needed t=o propagate the rarest of 
the rare.                                                             Georgia has 57 species of native orchids. Many of them are rare, and G=agliardo is already       
growing 30 in the tissue culture laboratory, where orchids and other p=lants can be cloned,      
sprouted from seed, or raised from cuttings on sterile gels and fed wi=th nutrients and          
hormones.                                                             Many native orchids, for example, need a nutrient "bridge" between see=ds and soil. In the wild, 
a soil fungus provides the bridge, Gagliardo said. If the fungus is ab=sent, the seeds won't     
germinate.                                                            Gagliardo and his colleagues seek more efficient ways to propagate pla=nts and to speed up the   
growth of slow-growing plants like trilliums, which take seven years t=o grow from seed to       
flower.                                                               "We could turn the knowledge over to the nursery industry," he said, e=xplaining that such a     
move would reduce incentives for collectors to gather the plants from =the wild.                 
Even before the tissue culture laboratory opened, garden researchers w=ere working to propagate  
rare plants, especially carnivorous bog plants, said Carol Denhof, con=servation coordinator.    
"They're very charismatic," she said. "They eat bugs, and people just =love that stuff."         
Plants grown at the garden have been used successfully in bog restorat=ion projects for more     
than a dozen years, starting with a project on U.S. Forest Service lan=d in northeast Georgia    
that involved growing a federally endangered species of pitcher plants=and replanting them in   
the wild.                                                             "The bog where they grew was down to just a handful of plants," Denhof=said. "A group of people 
thought they were helping the plants by pouring fertilizer into the pi=tchers, which killed a    
lot of the plants."                                                   Now, she said, 200 to 300 plants are flourishing in the restored bog. The garden also grows other federally endangered species, including th=e Florida torreya, a      
conifer that grows in Georgia only in Decatur County, on the Florida l=ine.                      
"It has suffered a fungal blight that causes root rot since about 1960=," Denhof said. "There    
are no trees in the wild now, mainly only root sprouts."              Ten-year-old cuttings at the garden are now 10 feet tall, and more of =the conifers are being    
cloned, she said.                                                     "We have more individuals here than exist in the wild," she said.     Denhof is also working on a project funded by the U.S. Fish and Wildliþ Service to restore     
four federally listed plant species on Grandfather Mountain, N.C. Hang=gliders who use the      
mountain have inadvertently destroyed many of the plants by running ov=er them as they leap off  
ledges, she said.                                                     "Nobody's done this kind of work before and succeeded," she said. "We'=re trying to figure out   
how to attach the plants to rocks and have them survive 200-mile-an-ho=ur wind and severe        
erosion."                                                             The next phase of Denhof's work focuses on orchid restoration, which d=ovetails with the work    
being done by Gagliardo at the tissue culture lab, she said.          Although the lab is off-limits to all but staff members, visitors can =get a close-up view of    
the facility, with its hundreds of glass jars and flasks filled with t=housands of rare          
seedlings.                                                            There is also an adjacent kiosk that explains the lab's work.         "As far as we know, this is the only one in the world with a floor-to-Îiling glass wall," said 
Geri Laufer, spokeswoman for the garden.                              



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