Monocots III: Orchids
Background
Orchid research has a long history at RBG Kew and dates back to the time of Sir Joseph Hooker's Directorship, when orchids grown at Kew were supplied by Hooker to Charles Darwin. The study of these orchids provided Darwin with the subjects described in a book, The Various Contrivances by which Orchids are Fertilised by Insects (1877), which he authored immediately after The Origin of Species. We have one of the oldest collections of living tropical orchids and more orchid scientists than any other scientific institution. Since the time of Hooker, orchid research at Kew has been based in the Orchid Herbarium and Library, which holds a large collection of preserved herbarium specimens (with more than 30,000 nomenclatural types and 400,000 specimens).
Orchid seed biology has been studied in the Jodrell Laboratory since the 1950s; and in the Micropropagation Unit cultivation of orchids from seeds, particularly European terrestrial orchids, has undergone many improvements and innovations due to the research carried out at Kew. In the Jodrell, Keith Jones and others began the study of orchid chromosomes in the 1960s, and this work was extended to molecular systematics in the 1990s with the establishment of the molecular laboratory and the arrival of Mark Chase. Recently, two new areas of research were established, pollination biology and development of an orchid species, Leochilus labiatus, as an alternative model organism. Conservation biology of British orchids has been studied by Michael Fay and collaborators, and this work forms part of the UK Government’s Species Recovery Programme. International coordination and promotion of orchid conservation has also been provided through chairing and participation in the IUCN/SSC Orchid Specialist Group, which has run two international conferences and many workshops and produced a textbook on orchid conservation techniques. Advice has also been provided to the British Government, the CITES secretariat and other governments on request. Orchid floral morphology and development have been studied by Paula Rudall and collaborators, and these contributions and others have formed the basis of the orchid volume of the Anatomy of the Moncocotyledons series. Finally, Kew is the editorial centre for the monumental series on orchids, Genera Orchidacearum (GO), which is scheduled to run to six volumes (1-4 are published and the last two are scheduled to be published in 2006 and 2008). GO is a generic monograph that treats each of the nearly 800 genera in the family in a detailed and comprehensive way.