Army of volunteers races to save one of Australia's rarest orchids
In a small green shed about an hour out of Melbourne, dozens of pot plants sit on a white plastic table. Volunteers tip the pots out and rummage through dirt, hunting for the large root-like tubers of one of Australia's rarest wild orchids. Alex McLachlan pulls up roots to show the other volunteers. "That's next year's tuber," he says. "You can tell that because it's white and thick and flush." He has been preparing these plants since early morning. The work takes years, picky pollinators and a special fungus. As the day heats up, the shed starts to smell a little musky as the purple flowers with spindly petals do their best to attract a pollinator.
Endangered native orchids need intensive volunteer effort to survive in the wild.
Source: Army of volunteers races to save one of Australia's rarest orchids (abc.net.au). Spotted via Good News Network.
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