Keri: among flowering plants, orchids form 9% of our flora and are the largest families among higher plants in India.
Although geographically the cave is a smaller condition, it has 68 rich and varied orchid species that add to the country’s natural glory.
Orchid flowers are mono-symmetrical because of the two parts of the flower mirror with each other.
Among flowering plants, orchids usually deceive their pollinators to pollinate them and attach pollinaries (structures in orchid flowers that are attached to insects during pollination) in animals and even deceived.
Without nutrition from parent plants, orchid seeds take assistance from the environment in the form of special fungus to germinate.
All orchids are eternal herbs who do not have a permanent wood structure.
Mandarar Flat a well-known botanist who has studied the diversity of orchids to Ti, “Goa has 68 species of 28 genera orchids where 42 are epiphytic and 26 are terrestrial, 28 species are endemic from Western Ghats.
Distribution of orchids in Goa concentrated mainly in Western Ghats , which shows off 86% of the total orchid species.
“He further said,” Among all protected areas, Mhadei wildlife reserve in Sattari was found to be rich in orchids with 39 species, followed by Bhagwan Mahavir Dharbandora and Cotigao (Canacona) Succuaries.
” Even though Goa occupies only 2% of Western Ghats, this is the host for 7% of the species of endemic flowering plants from Western Ghats.
Vd Vartak Botanists in 1966 reported several orchids, Rao Hospital in 1986 recorded 21 species while the Botanist flatly flat and Lakshminarasimhan recorded 34 species of orchids from Goa.
Suryakant Gaonkar, a wildlifer from Bhuipal in Sattari, said that “mining, deforestation for developments, rampant encroachment caused a hazard for pure forest habitat so that it threatens orchids.” Orchids are an important component of the environment that plays a role in ecosystems to remain dynamic and live.
They are ecosystem health indicators.
In Goa Aerides (Draupadi Veni) and Rhynchosthylis Retusa (Seetechi Veni) are valued as a symbol of sanctity and used for their medicinal value.
There is a need to create awareness for orchid conservation and their inundation genes in their natural habitat.