When I first joined NOSSA many years ago, I was very much interested in the conservation side of Australian orchids. But over the years I have come to appreciate the growers and their orchid knowledge.
This was quite evident when Dr Heinrich Beyrle, a long time researcher, gave his talk to the October 2025 NOSSA general meeting on orchid mycorrhizal and growing terrestrial orchids. As I listened to his explanation of how the mycorrhiza interacts with the orchid and saw the hybrids that he created, I saw glimpses of how this information relates to conservation.
So one of the things was to consider when out in the field, is the question: am I looking at a variation, a second generation hybrid or a new species?
Growers have the advantage of being able to observe a plant throughout the whole of its life cycle as well as the variations that occur in the same plant or population over several season, a thing that is not so easily observed by those of us visiting several different sites in one season and maybe not being able to get back to them in the next season.
I highly recommend Dr Heinrich’s talk “Orchid Mycorrhizal: From a Gardener’s Perspective” on the NOSSA Youtube channel.
All photos are from Dr Heinrich’s talk.
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