Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne

The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne has been involved in orchid conservation research for a number of years. Honours and PhD students have developed improved in vitro propagation methods for terrestrial orchids, and have improved our understanding of the relationship between the orchid and associated mycorrhizal fungi.

The Orchid Conservation Officers, based at the Gardens through Department of Sustainability and Environment funding, contributes to the implementation of Recovery Plans for endangered Victorian orchids. Using ex situ propagation and cultivation techniques plants, seed and fungi are made available for conservation purposes.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne has a large ex situ Victorian terrestrial orchid collection that acts as a backup for in situ populations and can be used for conservation purposes.

The Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne also manages the Australian Network for Orchid Conservation (ANOC), an email mailing list that facilitates communication between people interested in orchid conservation in Australia, and also hosts regular Orchid Researchers Meetings which promote informal information exchange between local researchers. The Gardens has supported and hosted more formal meetings as well, including the Ex situ Orchid Conservation Forum (2000), Mutual Gains - Cooperative orchid conservation in south-eastern Australia (2002), Orchid Conservation Forum II (2003), Population dynamics applied to orchid conservation workshop (2003) and Population dynamics workshop - tools for understanding and conserving our Australian flora (2005). 

Isolated fungi          Germinating seedlings      Seedlings on sponge               Deflasked seedlings