Conservation has many aspects and may not involve active management. Merely recording the presence of an orchid by noting the location and numbers, and perhaps photographing it helps assessing its distribution and hence its rarity. Reporting details on where it is growing - its habitat- will aid in understanding why the plant is growing there and will contribute to a knowledge base for cultivation. More importantly it may help in deciding on places where it can be successfully established either through transplanting or planting out from cultivation.

Before we make any intervention we need to consider why we need to do anything.

• Do we wish to enrich an area, such as an urban restoration project which may be too remote from natural seed sources?
• Is the plant at risk? Is it a threatened species?

• why is it threatened?
• Limited natural distribution?
• Declining habitats?
• Pests?

Active management in situe may involve weeding or perhaps pest control but may sometimes just involve physical protection. Bringing a species into cultivation may rarely be necessary and is usually ultimately to increase plant numbers. Collecting seed and germination is a skilled process For many species we are just beginning to understand their particular requirements. Transplanting a few plants may be to act as seed source nucleus. But many species are known to be difficult to transplant for a host of known and unknown reasons and that is best avoided.

For further information see St George I & McCrae1990: New Zealand orchids: natural history and cultivation. Available as a PDF on request.