• Introduction

• John Day and his scrapbooks

• Conserving orchids

• Investigating orchids

• Orchid collecting - then and now

• Orchids from the New World tropics

• Orchids of the mysterious East

• Orchids out of Africa

Paphiopedilum parishii

The earliest catalogue of plants growing in the Royal Gardens at Kew, published in 1768, lists 24 different orchid species. Today there are over 5000 species in the living plant collection. These are an immensely important research resource for Kew’s orchid specialists, complementing the 330,000 preserved orchid specimens held in the Herbarium and the comprehensive collection of books and illustrations, including the John Day scrapbooks.

In recent years, Kew’s orchid botanists have been active in studies of orchids from the Old World tropics, notably Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Africa and Madagascar. By combining research in the field with detailed investigation of specimens in the Kew collections and in other herbaria worldwide, they prepare inventories (floras and checklists) of orchids in particular regions. These are crucial as catalogues of the orchid diversity, distribution, ecology and rarity when conservation assessments are undertaken.

The breadth of the plant collections also supports in-depth research into specific groups of orchids, leading to greater understanding of the relationships, both within genera, such as Cymbidium, Paphiopedilum and Pleione, and in the family as a whole. The Genera Orchidacearum project is a worldwide study of the different genera in the family involving 50 different scientists from Kew and other botanical institutions. It brings together information from many different disciplines – morphology, anatomy, palynology, ecology, pollination, phytochemistry and DNA sequences – to produce a new classification of the family based on their phylogenetic relationships.

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