Orchidaceae represent about 10% of the world’s vascular plant diversity and 7% of Malagasy flora. Intensive field surveys conducted by our team have brought about 300 Malagasy orchid species into cultivation using a network of four orchid shade houses. Building on the foundation of these living collections, all of carefully documented provenance, we propose to develop an integrated approach to long-term conservation of Malagasy orchids involving field surveys, ex situ collection and IUCN assessments.

Specifically, we plan to bank seeds of 15% of Madagascar’s orchid diversity (ca. 150 species), focusing on those that are the most threatened. A full set of seeds will be stored in Madagascar, and a duplicate set will be conserved at the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UK. Data collected during the project will serve to assess the risk of extinction of ~200 orchids and to update the IUCN Red List. The results will be disseminated through popular and scientific papers, the Catalogue of the Plants of Madagascar (http://legacy.tropicos.org/Project/Madagascar) and portals related to orchids (e.g., https://fr-fr.facebook.com/osssuproject ).