While media attention focuses on charismatic megafauna, the world’s most endangered group of organisms grows in forests and grasslands largely unnoticed.
Orchids account for over half of all plant species on the IUCN Red List of threatened species.

These botanical jewels face a perfect storm of threats: habitat destruction, climate change, and their own specialized ecological requirements. Most disturbing is the continued illegal poaching that strips forests of rare species, a destructive echo of Victorian orchid mania when collectors ransacked entire habitats for private collections.

The rarer an orchid becomes, the higher its black market value rises, creating a vicious cycle that pushes species toward extinction. Today’s orchid smugglers, like their 19th century predecessors, risk wiping out irreplaceable species for short-term profit and collector prestige.